This article from NYTimes.com has been sent to you by psa188@xxxxxxxxx Money Problems Made Airlines Safer, F.A.A. Says April 4, 2003 By MATTHEW L. WALD WASHINGTON, April 3 - As the House, Senate and White House wrangled over a subsidy package for the airlines, the Federal Aviation Administration said today that financial strain had improved safety at some airlines, and that inspectors had been closely watching 11 financially weak carriers. Airlines with money problems have retired some planes, leaving active fleets of "newer, state-of-the-art airplanes," said Nicholas A. Sabatini, the agency's associate administrator for regulation and certification. Some airlines have retired all the airplanes of a particular type, making surviving fleets simpler to operate and maintain, he said. And with fewer planes to fly, some captains have been demoted to second-in-command, so "what you have on the flight deck is a very highly experienced combination of crew members - in essence, two captains," he said. But the F.A.A. has been putting "special emphasis" on carriers operating in bankruptcy: United Airlines; US Airways and four of its subsidiaries, Piedmont, PSA, Mid Atlantic and Allegheny; Express One International; Midway Airlines; and Hawaiian Airlines. It also was paying close attention to National Airlines and Vanguard Airlines, until they recently stopped operating. And, Mr. Sabatini said, US Airways and its subsidiaries will be taken off the list as it emerges from bankruptcy. In a briefing for reporters, Mr. Sabatini said that the emphasis included watching factors like the number of planes failing to depart on time because of maintenance problems and whether enough spare parts were kept on hand. Another was whether there had been an increase in the number of planes being flown with inoperable systems, he said. At any given time, most complex aircraft have a few systems that are not working, and F.A.A. rules state how many flights or days a plane can operate with certain breakdowns. But if the list of broken equipment gets longer, that is a warning sign of a safety problem, Mr. Sabatini said. However, he said, "We're not seeing any indications they're cutting corners." The House, Senate and White House continued to disagree on the shape of an airline bailout package that was part of a supplemental appropriations bill moving through Congress. While committees of both houses have approved about $3 billion in aid, the measures had significant differences. A Senate version called for direct compensation to the airlines for various losses, but the House version would refund some fees for security charged after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. "I think that is the cleanest way to do it," J. Dennis Hastert, the speaker of the House, told reporters today. Mr. Hastert said aid was needed so that "we don't have a whole industry collapse at a time maybe when we need it most." But Senator Trent Lott, chairman of the aviation subcommittee of the Commerce Committee, told an aviation forum that the package approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee was too big. He complained about $375 million added to help airports and $225 million for laid-off aviation workers. The Bush administration also wants less. The Office of Management and Budget, in a statement on Wednesday, said that any airline aid should be "associated with the impact of the present conflict" in Iraq. It said that the proposals before Congress were "excessive" and that what the airline industry really needed was "fundamental restructuring to align costs and capacity to the demands of the marketplace." Treasury Secretary John W. Snow said today at a lunch at the Orlando Chamber of Commerce that the airlines should cut costs and not rely on government aid. "Don't depend on us to solve these problems," he said. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/04/business/04SAFE.html?ex=1050466807&ei=1&en=bfbec8530ff276eb HOW TO ADVERTISE --------------------------------- For information on advertising in e-mail newsletters or other creative advertising opportunities with The New York Times on the Web, please contact onlinesales@xxxxxxxxxxx or visit our online media kit at http://www.nytimes.com/adinfo For general information about NYTimes.com, write to help@xxxxxxxxxxxx Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company