I have a theory that the flights being grounded for maintenance is actually a ruse.
This is actually a ploy to save money on fuel. With gas prices sharply rising and profits falling, the airlines have faked a grounding
in order to fill planes. The passengers have already paid, so what the airlines are doing is using less flights to move the same amount of people thus
saving gas by canceling flights.

Its like forced carpooling in the sky.

(=-M-=)

That's not a bad thought actually.

Yes, as long as one can hide the fact that it was under false pretenses, that would work.

Surely by grounding all these flights the Airline would have lost an awful lot of money

Your logic is flawed. You have to remember that American Airlines grounded their MD-80 fleet for about a week, and that number equals about 1/3rd of their fleet. They are losing money by cutting their capacity. The customers they sold tickets to have to get to where they need to and they will fly with someone else which means a loss of income, any way you slice it.

Thanks , sometimes i need a reality check.

Thats correct but the FAA does not require passengers to be reimbursed. So the money spent is still spent. At worst passengers may move to Another airline
which just comes down to double dipping in consumer or corporate pockets. In Many cases passengers were stranded waiting for another flight, sometimes for
days. The airlines decide who gets a room or compensation on a whim. Leaving most to fend for themselves.
As you pointed out only 1/3 was down, that leaves 2/3 of the MD-80 fleet active. Most flights are under booked to begin with, which is why you can get deals on
website based travel company's. The Airlines offer those deals to fill up the remainder of scheduled flights. And remember that most flights are planned a month or more ahead of time. A week of downtime could have easily been planned into the schedules on the sly. And really its not just Fuel, but labor and
hours on equipment as well.

So in the end it still doesn't seem my logic is all that flawed. But it is just a theory after all.

I said a 1/3 of American airlines fleet was grounded, not a 1/3rd of the Md-80s. Anyway, the only way airnlines make money is by flying their aircraft as many hours as is possible, they will never achieve 24hrs because of maintenance, airport delays etc.. If they wanted to save money, they would layoff employees cut back on maintenance etc. Grounding their MD-80s, cost them money and did not save them a penny. The only reason American is still flying the gas guzzling MD-80s is because they are bought and paid for, replacement aircraft cost money that AA lacks.

I was flying out of Dallas to Toronto the day that the MD-80s were grounded. I got out only because that flight was on a 737. You should have seen the chaos in the terminal. Thousand of passangers were stranded because many flights headed northeast were on the MD-80s. So passangers don't get to their destination. American has to buy them a hotel room and provide a meal voucher, they also have to figure out how to get these passangers out of Dallas and other airports using different aicraft in their fleet. The costs of this far outweigh and savings. An aicraft on the ground does not make money so your logic is indeed flawed.

Cheers