American Airlines has canceled dozens of flights due to a labor shortfall, maintenance problems, and other issues that the airline is experiencing as flight demand rises to pre-pandemic proportions. According to flight monitoring website Flightradar24, approximately 6% of the carrier’s regular schedule, or 180 flights, remained canceled on Sunday. That accounted for about 3% of the carrier’s total flights and those handled by regional airlines.
Around half of them were due to the unavailability of flight crews, according to a company list. On Saturday, about 4%, or 123 flights, were canceled, according to the website.
American Airlines said it is reducing its entire schedule by approximately 1% until mid-July to assist alleviate a few of the delays caused by severe weather and at Charlotte and Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport bases during the first half of June.
The weather has affected flight crews’ flexibility to reach scheduled flights, and inclement weather may cause crews to operate outside of the federally permitted hours, the officials added.
Dennis Tajer, a spokesperson for such Allied Pilots Association, which serves about 15,000 American pilots, argued the business should provide more overtime to incentivize employees to step in and greater scheduling flexibility for pilots to address staffing shortages.
American is also rushing to train all of the pilots it suspended in the interim between two government assistance agreements that prevented layoffs and all of its aviators scheduled for regular recurrent training.
Delta Air Lines suspended almost 300 flights over the Thanksgiving weekend and dozens more over the Christmas holiday due to a pilot shortage.
As previously reported by the airline site View from the Wing, the weekend’s delays occur as airlines attempt to capitalize on a spike in flight demand and reverse record losses.
In a filing earlier this month, American Airlines stated that it expected its second-quarter capacity to be down twenty to twenty five percent from last year. In comparison, United Airlines predicted a capacity drop of around forty percent and Delta’s thirty two percent decrease from last year. Meanwhile, Southwest Airlines indicated a three percent decrease in July capacity compared to 2019, down from a seven percent decline this month.
