Business Notes

American Airlines is one of the strongest U.S. carriers, but lately it has been feeling under the weather. Last week the airline said it will have to cancel at least 230 flights, or 11% of its daily schedule, including all its Los Angeles -- to -- San Francisco flights. American attributed the reduction to a shortage of pilots, who the carrier says have been calling in sick at a high rate -- more than 500 on some days, twice the normal number. The airline accuses the pilots of staging an illegal sick-out to put pressure on American in negotiations that have been going on since October 1989 over the pilots' next five-year contract. The pilots deny organizing any sick-out.

In full-page newspaper ads, American embarrassed itself last week when it tried to apologize to passengers for the problems caused by the flight cancellations. The airline got the name of the pilots' union wrong, calling it the Airline Pilots Association instead of the Allied Pilots Association. The following day American ran a corrected ad, and tough-talking chairman Robert Crandall had to apologize all over again, this time in a letter to the union.