American will lengthen flight times to cut delays

American Airlines plans to lengthen its scheduled flight times by five to seven minutes in an effort to reduce delays, a senior official told Bloomberg News. Senior VP-Global Sales David Cush told Bloomberg that the revised flight time strategy will apply to almost all AA flights out of Dallas/Ft. Worth and Chicago O’Hare, its two largest hubs. He said American will begin fight operations earlier in the day and continue the later in the evening to accommodate the longer flight times. The changes should take effect this fall. For the year ending in June 2007, American ranked 13th in on-time arrivals.