A spokeswoman for PSA Airlines said Friday the airline’s decision last year to outsource plane maintenance work to a third-party vendor has nothing to do with the sudden grounding of much of its fleet Thursday for inspections of plane nose gear doors.
“This has no relation to the CAVOK partnership for enhanced technical services work that we announced last year,” PSA spokeswoman Jenna Arnold said Friday. CAVOK Group is a transportation consultancy based in Westlake, Texas.
There are a total of 130 aircraft in the PSA fleet, and American said it worked with customers Thursday to find other flights.
American said Thursday evening that more than 200 of its flights operated by PSA Airlines had been canceled up to that point.
PSA is an Dayton-based regional airline flying under the American Eagle brand for American Airlines. It is a wholly-owned subsidiary of American Airlines Group.
In a statement to this news outlet Thursday, a spokesperson for American said: “Out of an abundance of caution, PSA Airlines has temporarily removed most of its aircraft from service in order to complete a necessary, standard inspection on the nose gear door. We are working with PSA and the FAA to immediately address the issue.”
Last August, PSA, the only Ohio-based airline, told Ohio government it intended to outsource its maintenance and engineering services work.
“PSA Airlines Inc, will be reducing its workforce at Dayton, International Airport ... ” the airline said in a letter to the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services. “PSA is outsourcing its professional maintenance and engineering technical services to a third party vendor to increase our aircraft reliability.”
By Oct. 25 last year, PSA was to reduce its workforce related to maintenance and engineering, the company said last summer. These layoffs were expected to be permanent.
The state put the number of PSA layoffs related to that announcement at 47.
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