US carrier American Airlines had to cancel nearly 1,500 flights since Friday due to understaffing triggered by severe weather disruptions.
American Airlines general manager David Seymour said in a note to staff on Saturday that the difficulties began Thursday with severe windstorms that blocked the capacity of the airline’s hub in Dallas and delayed staff for the next flights.
He evokes the difficulties in finding pilots and flight personnel and hopes that operations will be reestablished “at the beginning of the month” before the return of 1,800 flight personnel who had been on standby since the pandemic and the hiring of 600 others “by the end of December”, among others.
Most of the affected travellers were able to get another reservation for the same day, says the company, which operates 6,700 daily flights around the world to 350 destinations and 50 countries.
The American Airlines case is not isolated: last week, Southwest Airlines had to cancel more than 2,000 flights, costing it $75 million.
And in Belgium, Brussels Airlines cancelled seven flights during the busy All Saints long weekend.