Only a week before Thanksgiving, American Airlines (AMR:NYSE) is apparently scrambling to work through a maintenance snafu that has seen tens of its MD80s grounded in various locations around the country because of fuel contamination problems.

From what we understand, American Airlines’ maintenance crews improperly prepped fuel tank access doors of the affected aircraft before painting them.

The mistake then apparently caused the paint to contaminate the fuel filters of the aircraft.

We understand that American Airlines was forced to ground 54 of its approximately 300 MD80s on Friday and as of yesterday, there were still a fair number of aircraft parked around the system.

Needless to say, not even considering the cost of repairing the actual problem, this has become a costly mistake for American, as thousands of travelers have had to be compensated and/or rerouted since the aircraft were pulled from service.

Given the date, it’s going to become even more costly if the airline can’t get those aircraft back up and flying soon.