American Airlines cancels hundreds of flights due to pilot shortage

The aviation industry in the United States is beginning to see the rather unfortunate aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was only this time last year that airlines in the United States were actively encouraging pilots to take a break from the airline industry either by taking early retirement packages or unpaid leaves of absence. However, this time some airlines in the United States are feeling the repercussions from those managerial decisions.

While many believed that it would take at least a couple of years for the sector to recover to operating levels seen in 2019, it now seems like this summer will be right on the heels of that record season. American Airlines is just one example of a North American carrier that is losing out when it comes to scheduling flights to serve the unprecedented summer travel demand, which has quickly outpaced original estimates.

By midday on Tuesday, August 3rd, American Airlines decided to cancel around 300 of its 3,000 daily flights, with the airline citing a lack of pilots as one of the reasons for the cancellations. This could be due to a number of other different reasons such as poor crew schedule planning, pilots and flight attendants “timing out” or even areas such as legal crew duty and rest requirements. It could also be the case that there were not even enough pilots or flight attendants for the number of flights scheduled.

Pilot unions representing American Airlines were quick to accuse the airline’s management of the staff shortage, claiming that there was poor planning regarding bringing back more and more pilots. According to union spokesman, Dennis Tajer the problem is “pretty simple” and went on to stated that “They don’t have enough pilots and they don’t have modern scheduling practices to do more with what they have.” 

According to the third-party tracking program, FlightAware American Airlines cancelled about 560 flights, which was roughly 18% of its scheduled flights on Monday and nearly 300 on Sunday. Most were at its Dallas Fort Worth International Airport mega-hub, where severe thunderstorms disrupted flights for several hours on Sunday, August 1st.

American Airlines is not alone when it comes to staffing shortages. It has also caught other air carriers off guard, with many airlines scrambling to hire or reemploy staff so that each airline can effectively at the capacity needed to cope with the ongoing surge in air travel demand. American Airlines’ difficulties over these past couple of days is simply just another battle lost in the war against the resurgence in passenger demand.

Source: https://aeronewsx.com/american-airlines-cancels-hundreds-of-flights-due-to-pilot-shortage/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=american-airlines-cancels-hundreds-of-flights-due-to-pilot-shortage