Stranded passengers wait at Los Angeles International Airport yesterday after American Airlines cancels more than 900 flights to fix faulty wiring in hundreds of jets.

AP / Ric Francis

For those traveling through T.F. Green Airport this weekend, expect crowds.

The weekend before April vacation week is among the busiest of the year at the Warwick airport, said Patti Goldstein, a spokeswoman for the Rhode Island Airport Corporation.

She said that for today, 91 percent of all available seats are booked. For tomorrow, 93 percent are booked. There are a total of 186 arriving and departing flights every weekday, she said.

To make matters worse, inspection issues with American Airlines planes could affect the travel plans of those booked on American Eagle flights who plan to travel beyond Chicago.

American canceled 933 more flights yesterday after safety inspections discovered that the airline failed to follow a directive by the Federal Aviation Administration regarding the securing of wiring in the wheel wells of some of its Boeing MD-80 jets. American canceled 1,094 flights on Wednesday and 460 on Tuesday. The cancellations have stranded more than 273,000 passengers nationwide.

While American does not operate the MD-80 out of Green Airport, passengers who plan to transfer to other flights in Chicago could experience delays, Goldstein said.

American Eagle has three daily flights from Green to Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, one of American’s hubs. The flights all depart in the morning, and each has a capacity of 44 passengers.

American has set up a Web page with updates about the problem and how travelers can change their plans. The address is www.aa.com/aa/pubcontent/en_US/urls/md80.jsp

American said it had “no choice” in parking its 300 MD-80 jets, which make up nearly half its fleet, after the planes again failed to meet a federal safety order. The carrier expects further cancellations today and tomorrow before all its MD-80s are back in service late that day.

FAA whistleblower complaints that spurred a safety audit at 117 airlines and caused at least four carriers to ground planes sent a wake-up call to regulators and an industry that had grown complacent about maintenance, a former top safety official said.

“The airlines and FAA have spent too much time talking about how safe the system is without trying to ensure the continued safety,” James Hall, former chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, said in an interview. “This is kind of a spanking, and that’s certainly better than an accident.”

Midwest Air Group Inc. grounded its 13 MD-80s for inspections and canceled 14 flights yesterday. The Oak Creek, Wis.-based carrier planned to have inspections completed by the end of the day, spokesman Michael Brophy said. MD-80s make up 34 percent of Midwest’s fleet.

Alaska Air Group Inc. canceled 11 flights, on top of 31 dropped since Tuesday night, to continue checks on its nine MD-80s, spokeswoman Caroline Boren said. The Seattle-based airline is “not anticipating major schedule impacts tomorrow” from the checks, she said.

Delta Air Lines Inc. has completed inspections of its 117 MD-88s, which are part of the MD-80 family, spokeswoman Betsy Talton said. The Atlanta-based carrier canceled a “handful” of flights yesterday, she said, without being more specific.

Compensating stranded passengers and the work on the jets will create “very significant” costs, American said, without elaborating.

Customers booked on canceled flights may request a refund or credit toward future flights, American said. Those with flight reservations through tomorrow can rebook without charge. The airline is paying for hotel stays for passengers stuck overnight.

Falling short of FAA requirements for the wiring adjustments in an earlier round meant that American didn’t have the option of parking some jets on a rotating basis while flying others, chief executive officer Gerard Arpey said. American checked all the MD-80s in March in response to the FAA order, resulting in groundings and hundreds of scrapped flights.

“A very high percentage” of American’s MD-80s weren’t in compliance when rechecked, executive vice president Dan Garton said yesterday. “We viewed ourselves as having no choice but to ground the aircraft.”

As travelers clogged airport terminals, especially at hubs such as Dallas-Fort Worth, American shifted some to other flights, ran buses to destinations within driving distance or tried to find seats on rival carriers.

With Bloomberg News reports

tbarmann@projo.com