TWA Reports Busiest Day of Strike
NEW YORK — Trans World Airlines was flying about 74% of its scheduled flights Saturday, its busiest day since the beginning of a 9-day-old strike by flight attendants, a company spokesman said.
The airline’s planned schedule for Saturday called for 431 flights, including 45 international departures and trips to every city in its system, TWA spokesman Dan Kemnitz said.
The schedule represents 74.2% of TWA’s normal daily departures, and 84% of normal seating capacity, Kemnitz said. Exact figures would not be in until this morning, he said.
The 5,700-member Independent Federation of Flight Attendants, meanwhile, complained to the Federal Aviation Administration that TWA’s replacement flight attendants are violating FAA regulations.
Sally McElwreath, a TWA spokeswoman, said the airline’s training of replacements was in full compliance with FAA regulations.
The union released a statement Friday from Kansas City, saying that FAA inspector William Francis had told TWA to “cease using unqualified crew members as of March 11.”
FAA spokesman Fred Farrar said Saturday in Washington that TWA was warned that it had been giving its new flight attendants--even before the strike--only half the training required. He said the airline had misinterpreted the regulations and immediately complied.
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