WASHINGTON, United States | The American airline American Airlines has had to cancel nearly a thousand flights since Friday, due to a shortage of staff triggered by disruptions linked to bad weather.
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According to the site FlightAware, which tracks delays and cancellations in the American skies, American Airlines canceled more than 800 flights on Friday and Saturday and still plans more than 400 cancellations on Sunday.
American Airines chief executive David Seymour said in a note to staff on Saturday, communicated to AFP, that the difficulties began Thursday with strong windstorms that blocked the capacity of the airline’s hub in Dallas and delayed staff positions for future flights.
The boss of the company mentions the difficulties in finding pilots and flight personnel: “with certain meteorological conditions in addition, we are starting to run out of personnel, because the crew members find themselves out of their flight schedule”.
He hopes that operations will be restored “at the beginning of the month” by announcing 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 as well as that of 4,000 employees of airports.
Most of the affected travelers 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.
American Airlines is not the first airline to suffer from a staffing shortage since travel demand rebounded with vaccinations and the lifting of restrictions.
Southwest last week had to cancel more than 2,000 flights, costing it $ 75 million.
The problems were triggered on a Friday afternoon by inclement weather and a temporary shortage of air traffic controllers in an area in Florida. But the situation was quickly worsened by limited numbers and, by a snowball effect, then persisted for several days.