American Airlines canceled 450 flights over the weekend and is planning more cancellations in an effort to adjust its summer schedule to accommodate a surging number of travelers headed for the skies.
Weather and labor shortages were responsible for the need to cancel so much of its weekend schedule, including 122 scheduled flights on Monday, according to an airline spokeswoman.
“The first few weeks of June have brought unprecedented weather to our largest hubs, heavily impacting our operation and causing delays, canceled flights and disruptions to crew member schedules and our customers’ plans,” American Airlines spokeswoman Stacy Day told the Washington Examiner in a statement. “That, combined with the labor shortages some of our vendors are contending with and the incredibly quick ramp up of customer demand, has led us to build in additional resilience and certainty to our operation by adjusting a fraction of our scheduled flying through mid-July.”
“We made targeted changes with the goal of impacting the fewest number of customers by adjusting flights in markets where we have multiple options for re-accommodation,” Day added.
Nearly half of Sunday’s 190 cancellations, or 3% of the airline’s total daily schedule, were due to unavailable flight crews, CNBC reported, citing internal company documents. American Airlines will cancel additional flights equaling 1% of its total schedule through mid-July.
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Weather incidents during early June at Charlotte Douglas International Airport and Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, two of American’s hubs, affected crews’ ability to operate a number of flights and contributed to the need for cancellations, a company spokesperson also told the outlet.
The airline is also reportedly working to catch up pilots who were furloughed because of the coronavirus pandemic on necessary trainings. The company should complete training for those pilots by the end of June, the spokesperson said.
American Airlines, along with United Airlines, sent furlough notices to tens of thousands of employees last year as travel demand fell dramatically due to the coronavirus pandemic. Two federal aid packages earmarked funds for the travel industry to help pay employees’ wages, mitigating the impact of airlines’ revenue slumps but not protecting them entirely.
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Travel demand is surging once again as coronavirus vaccinations increase and pandemic restrictions fade. The number of passengers screened by the Transportation Security Administration has remained above 1 million every day since March 11.
“Our focus this summer ― and always ― is on delivering for our customers no matter the circumstance,” Day added. “We never want to disappoint, and feel these schedule adjustments will help ensure we can take good care of our customers and team members and minimize surprises at the airport.”
