Recent weather issues, and labor shortages with some of its vendors, along with a quick ramp-up of customer demands, has led American Airlines to take steps to add additional resilience and certainty to their operations.
As the Wall Street Journal explains, the more flights an airline offers, the more potential there is for trouble if something goes awry. The WSJ notes that American Airlines is proactively looking ahead so it can avoid any problems that might arise.
To this end, American has decided to “adjust a fraction of our scheduled flying through mid-July,” Shannon Gilson, a spokesperson tells CNN. “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 crewmember schedules and our customers’ plans,”
That fraction of targeted cancellations still adds up to hundreds of flights through mid-July. There were 120 flights canceled Saturday and 176 Sunday, and 50 to 80 per day are expected going forward.
Customers who have been booked through July 15 will be notified if their flights have been canceled so they can make other travel adjustments or arrangements. Reservations will be refunded entirely if the rescheduled flights don’t work for them.
The View From the Wing site, which focuses on the travel industry, first reported on the cancellations and said they came as the company looks to get “inactive pilots back online” after the coronavirus pandemic slowdown.
After receiving federal stimulus money, the company didn’t furlough anyone, View from the Wing reported. But American is still “only about halfway” to bringing back inactive pilots, who must to take a five-day course before they become active, the site said.
