Originally Posted by APN Philip

The problem is, these are tickets that have already been purchased. You can increase your fares a bit, but that only affects last-minute ticket purchasers. Increase it too much and you start to lose customers.

I agree that it's safer than ever to fly. However, we are talking about the MD-80's, airplanes that are 1) American Airlines's most fuel inefficient equipment, and 2) have been in service for close to 30 years. Only now are they doing something about it? Something's a little fishy here..