American Airlines has canceled more than 2,000 flights since Friday — stranding tens of thousands of passengers temporarily at U.S. airports across the country. American is just the latest airline to suffer crippling logistical failures amid staffing shortages.
American has already canceled 300 flights Monday morning, but anticipates they will get through “the brief irregular ops period quickly with the start of a new month.”
A staffing boost from the 1,800 American flight attendants set to return from leave Monday should help American re-stabilize this week, experts said.
Southwest had a similar operational meltdown three weeks ago when the airline canceled 2,000 flights over three days. In response, the airline said it’s going to hire more than 5,000 employees by the end of the year to mitigate future issues and has 50 percent of the goal met.
Experts are worried American and Southwest’s inability to stabilize their schedules quickly is a potential warning of what to expect for holiday travel.
Source-ABC
