Airlines seek USPS Reinstatement

American Airlines and US Airways hope to quickly resolve their differences with the U.S. Postal Service and return to hauling domestic mail. Citing poor service, the Postal Service this month stopped using the two airlines to carry domestic mail until service improved, USPS spokesman Jim Quirk said. Click to Enlarge At least one of the carriers is conferring with Postal Service officials daily about a program to improve its service, an industry source said. Under contracts awarded to the airlines in 2003, the Postal Service imposed strict on-time standards, which are monitored by a tracking system. Failure to meet those standards for any route could result in the airline losing business to competitors. In addition to American and US Airways, 16 other companies were awarded contracts. The two carriers failed over a five-month period to meet performance levels mandated in their USPS contracts. Both were warned in December of their poor service and had to come up with an improvement plan, Quirk said. Even as volumes steadily decline, the mail business remains very important to the industry. Since 2000, domestic postal traffic flown by the airlines has plummeted more than 62 percent. Still, mail represents a very profitable stream of business in an industry struggling to stay afloat.