American Airlines canceled hundreds of flights due to staff shortages and maintenance problems

American Airlines said it canceled hundreds of flights over the weekend (June 19-20) due to staff shortages, maintenance issues, and other difficulties arising from the surge in travel demand. Writes about it CNBC.

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About 6% of the airline's core schedule, or 190 flights, were canceled for Sunday, June 20, according to flight tracking site FlightAware. According to the airline, this represents about 3% of the total number of flights, including those operated by regional carriers. About half of them were caused by a lack of flight crews. According to FlightAware, about 19% of the main schedule, or 4 flights, were canceled on Saturday, June 123, and 21 on Monday, June 106.

The airline said it is cutting its overall schedule by about 1% through mid-July to reduce disruptions that occurred in the first half of June at international airports in Charlotte, North Carolina and at Dallas / Fort Worth international airports that were caused by bad weather.

Airlines are struggling to keep up with the surge in air travel demand as the government lifts travel restrictions. Some travelers have complained about hours of waiting time for customer service.

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The Transportation Security Administration said it checked over 21 million people on Sunday, June 2,1, the highest since March 7, 2020, but 23% less than 2,7 million two years ago, just months before. the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

American shares fell about 1% on Monday morning, while shares of most other airlines rose, as did the market as a whole.

“Bad weather, coupled with labor shortages and incredibly rapid growth in consumer demand, has forced us to adjust some of our scheduled flights through mid-July,” American Airlines spokeswoman Sarah Janz said. “We made targeted changes to impact the fewest number of customers.”

The bad weather has impacted the ability of flight crews to carry out their assigned flights, the spokesman said.

Dennis Tager, a spokesman for the Pilots Association, which represents approximately 15 US pilots, said the company should offer more overtime in advance to encourage employees to work, as well as provide more flexibility in pilot schedules to cover staff shortages.

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"They're trying to put a Band-Aid on something that requires stitches," said Tager, who is also a Boeing 737 captain.

American is also trying to train new pilots as well as its own pilots, who must undergo periodic refresher training. Janz said American will complete pilot training by the end of this month and added that the company is offering overtime to all employees.

American Airlines is not the only carrier whose operations have been disrupted by staffing shortages. Delta Air Lines canceled more than 300 flights over Thanksgiving 2020 and numerous other flights during Christmas due to a shortage of pilots.

The problems occurred just as carriers recorded a sharp increase in travel demand. American said earlier this month that it expects its Q20 throughput to decline 25-2019% from 46, while United Airlines estimated its flight volume to be about 32% less and Delta is forecasting a 2019% decline. % compared to 3. Southwest Airlines, meanwhile, predicts its July throughput will decline by just 2019% from XNUMX.

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