American Airlines is canceling hundreds of flights through at least mid-July as the company strives to maintain the schedule amidst massively increasing travel demand while the coronavirus pandemic continues to recede in the United States, according to a spokesperson from the airline.
"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 crew member schedules and our customers' plans," says Shannon Gilson, a spokesperson for the airline, "That, combined with the labor shortages some of our vendors are contending with and the incredibly quick ramp up of customer demand, has led us to build in additional resilience and certainty to our operation by adjusting a fraction of our scheduled flying through mid-July."
The cancellations started this weekend as American canceled 120 flights Saturday and 176 on Sunday, about 6% of its operations for the weekend due to a lack of available crew. However, many of the flights were called off in advance and passengers were able to rebook well before heading to the airport.
Still, the fraction of targeted cancelations adds up to hundreds of flights through mid-July, and the company is projecting 50 to 80 flight cancelations per day going forward, according to Gibson.
The airline also attributes cancellations to the quick increase in service offerings as travel demand suddenly increased over the past few weeks. Even with the cancellations, American intends to almost resume its pre-pandemic flight capacity this summer. The carrier predicts its second-quarter capacity will be down 20% from 2019.
Industries across the country have struggled to hire employees as the economy attempts to return to a pre-pandemic normal.
Customers who had been booked through July 15 will be notified or have already received notifications if their flights have been canceled so they can make travel adjustments in advance, Gibson said.
Gibson also said the cancelations will be spread throughout its system, to minimize impact in a single area, though there will be a bigger effect in Dallas-Fort Worth, an American Airlines hub.
