Summer Holidays are exposing the Carriers, Six major U.S. airlines are being questioned by a distingushed Senator to explain Labour Shortages leading to the high rates of delayed and canceled flights this summer, despite the airlines getting billions in federal Pandemic aid to retain the workers .
U.S. Citizens are Fuming , they feel cheated , to be on their side , Senator Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., who happens to be the Chair of U.S. Senate Commerce Committee, sent letters Friday to the CEOs of American, Southwest, Delta, JetBlue, Republic and Allegiant.
She shared the concerns of Tax payers that there have been reports that have highlighted the role of Aviation worker shortages in a surge of delayed and canceled flights.
In her letters to the CEOs, Cantwell said each airline did a poor job of managing its workforce and, at worst, “failed to meet the intent of tax payer funding and prepare for the surge in travel that we are now witnessing.”
Through Multiple Negotiations, Congress has already aprroved $54 billion Aid to upkeep the Aviation workers Since March 2020, and as a Pre-condition, airlines have been prohibited from furloughing workers,but airlines did their own arrangements to cut costs that included thousands of employees taking voluntary buyouts and early retirement.
Those series of decisions are pinching the Airlines dearly now , and they are desperate to call back the staffs from Long term Leave apart from recruiting fresh candidates.
American airlines itself plans to recall 3,300 Cabin Crews from long-term leave and hire 800 additionally to suffice the need before the year end. Delta is not behind , they plan to hire between 5,000 workers this year to reduce the delays and cancellation affecting the travel plans of Summer holidayers.
Some Carriers like Southwest blamed recent delays on summer thunderstorms and technology “challenges” last month that led to an unusually high number of delays and flight cancelations.
Delta Chief Executive Ed Bastian commented on Wednesday that,
"the challenges of getting our airline fully back to the service level our customers expect and deserve is daunting in light of the huge surge in demand that we are experiencing."
Earlier, U.S. Carriers and their unions had lobbied for the federal aid, which has been extended twice and is scheduled to expire on Sept. 30.
Trade group Airlines and industry sources say that without the money, “the impacts of the pandemic would have been far more devastating to our industry and our workforce, and our return to the skies would have been dramatically slowed.”
Government figures say that around 35,000 airlines staffs due to the Pandemic and the jobs were restored when Congress extended the payroll relief.
In worst of Aviation history, the passengers flying in the U.S. had gone down to 100,000 a day in April 2020 owing to series of lockdowns and Covid-19 infection inflation.
However, with successful vaccination drive, the count has increased from about 700,000 a day in early February 21 to about 2 million a day in July, though less than pre-pandemic figures, its going to recover gradually.
