American Air: could take days to return to normal

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - AMR Corp's American Airlines could take several days to return to normal service after grounding its fleet of MD-80 aircraft for wiring inspections, the company's top executive said on Thursday.

Chief Executive Gerard Arpey told a conference call with reporters that American is trying to stay ahead of the problem "as best we can" but inspections and related work takes time. The Federal Aviation Administration must inspect each plane before it returns to service.

Arpey did not have a firm figure for the financial impact of the disruption so far, including nearly 2,500 canceled flights over the past three days, but believes it will "be in the tens of millions of dollars."

Arpey also said American would "take a look" at accelerating replacement of its nearly 300-strong MD-80 fleet with new Boeing Co 737s.

(Reporting by John Crawley)