Two biggest U.S. airlines see no Y2K problems

By Michael Conlon

CHICAGO, Sept 28 (Reuters) - The two largest U.S. airlines said on Tuesday they have found no Year 2000 computer problems on their international routes that would jeopardize travel during the New Year period.

Rick Juster, director of the corporate Y2K program at United Airlines, said the world's largest carrier had reviewed all global flight segments.

While "in some cases we found we don't have all the information" needed no know if there is trouble lurking, he said, no obvious problems have surfaced.

"If there's any concern about safety we'll cancel a flight," he added.

Greg Pantos, manager of facilities, ground equipment and aircraft maintenance at American Airlines, the second biggest U.S. airline, said he agreed with those assessments.

Both said they were confident they had made every adjustment necessary to ensure domestic travel would be free from any turn-of-the-century computer turmoil.

Experts have expressed concern that some less developed parts of the world will face problems on Jan. 1 related to older computers which read "00" as the year 1900 and not 2000.

The two airline executives spoke at a briefing along with Chicago and Federal Aviation Administration officials who said they were confident that the U.S. air traffic system -- including busy O'Hare International Airport in Chicago -- had rooted out any problems.

"Airline travel will be as safe and reliable on Jan. 1 as it is today," said Tom Browne, executive director of the Aviation Millennium Project of the Air Transport Association, the umbrella organization for U.S. air carriers.

His group released a poll of 800 U.S. adults taken on Sept. 6 and 7 which found that less than one in 10 have changed their plans to avoid traveling on Jan. 1. It also found that fewer people -- about 20 percent now compared to nearly 50 percent a year ago -- expect major Y2K problems.

Brown said he believes Russia's air traffic system will be ready for the change over.

Roger Nicholson, principal engineer for the Boeing Commercial Airplanes Group, said his company had taken all of its models aloft, changed clocks to make it appear that 1999 was about to end and turned on all possible systems. All aircraft continued flying "absolutely normally," he said.

He said Boeing conducted a test in a "third world" country -- which he declined to identify -- and found that landing and take-off under simulated Jan. 1 conditions found no problems, including radar and landing systems.

United's Juster said the carrier was still planning to fly a full schedule on New Year's Eve into the next day, but would review it later and make adjustments, if needed, based on actual demand.

Some airlines have already cut back. Northwest Airlines and its Dutch partner KLM announced on Tuesday that they would cut many international flights on Dec. 31 because of a lack of demand for seats.

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Ray

-- Ray (ray@totacc.com), September 28, 1999

Answers

American cutting flights. KLM, Northwest, Singapore, etc. all cutting flights... Yeah, no problem!

-- Mad Monk (madmonk@hawaiian.net), September 28, 1999.

Only a total moron would fly out of the country on December 31.

-- Dog Gone (layinglow@rollover.now), September 28, 1999.