Cancellation Woes - Why did American Airlines cancelled 762 flights and delayed 172  flights on Sunday ?

Inclement weather forced American Airlines to scrap around 700 flights on Sunday , i.e., about 28% of total flight operations . This adds to earlier cancelled 460 flights on Saturday after weather conditions affected carrier's operations.

American Airlines Group Inc. canceled more than 1,000 flights this weekend and blamed weather, particularly high winds earlier this week in Dallas, for the disruption. 

• High winds in Dallas is being held responsible for the disruption in American Airlines' schedule.
• Since Friday, cancellations and delays have been continuing, leaving many passengers starnaded at several stations. 
• Apart from cancellations, American Airlines has also delayed nearly 900 flights over the course of the weekend. 

762 is the exact figure of cancelled flight, according to the aviation tracking tool FlightAware and additional 172 flights have been delayed, that followed 543 cancellations and 434 delays from the carrier on Saturday.  

Two days of severe weather, including wind gusts of 50 miles per hour, at its Dallas-Fort Worth hub , company's largest , kept three out of five runways shut, the company said in an Oct. 30 statement. 

As a result of the weather, crew members were shuffled out of their normal schedules and flight sequences, leaving many incapable of catching their next flights and setting off a series of delays.

The “proactive" cancellations are a “measure to minimize any inconvenience as much as possible," American said in the statement. “Most of the customers impacted by these changes are being rebooked the same day."

Air travel in U.S.A is recovering fast following more than a year of Pandemic restrictions. Sources indicate, airline passenger numbers in the U.S. totaled 1.93 million on Thursday, which is more than twice the 873,636 figure on the same weekday a year earlier.

This week, U.S.A. issued new rules for travelers , that required proof of full vaccination against Covid-19 in addition to a recent negative test for the virus. The move, that takes effect on Nov. 8 is among the biggest developments to U.S. travel policy since the start of the pandemic.

Talking about the high-traffic holiday months, American airlines spokesperson says,

"the good news" is that the airline is staffing up across the "entire operation," including an estimated 1,800 flight attendants that are returning from leave beginning on November 1 and an additional 600 new hires that will join the team by the end of December."

You may like to read...