American Airlines has canceled more than a thousand flights due to staff shortages

Washington, United States | American Airlines American Airlines has had to cancel nearly a thousand flights since Friday, due to staff shortages caused by interruptions caused by adverse weather.

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According to the FlightAware site that tracks delays and cancellations in US skies, American Airlines canceled more than 800 flights on Friday and Saturday and expects more than 400 cancellations on Sunday.

David Seymour, chief executive of American Airlines, told AFP in a note to staff on Saturday that difficulties with severe hurricanes blocking the capacity of the airline hub in Dallas began Thursday and delayed staff positions for future flights.

The company boss noted the difficulties in locating pilots and flight attendants: “Along with some weather conditions, we began to experience staff shortages because crews could not find their flight schedule.”

He hopes operations will resume “at the beginning of the month” by re-announcing the 1,800 flight crew ready for the epidemic, and will hire 600 and hire 4,000 by the end of December. Airports.

Most of the affected passengers were able to get another reservation on the same day, the company said, operating 6,700 daily flights to 350 destinations worldwide and 50 countries.

American Airlines was not the first airline to suffer from staff shortages as travel demand rebounded with vaccinations and the lifting of sanctions.

Southwest had to cancel more than 2,000 flights last week, costing $ 75 million.

The problems arose Friday afternoon due to bad weather and a temporary shortage of air traffic controllers in an area of ​​Florida. But due to the limited numbers the situation deteriorated quickly and lasted for several days under the influence of snowball.

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