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Home » American Airlines » Meltdown: American Airlines Cancels Or Delays Over 1,000 Flights
American Airlines

Meltdown: American Airlines Cancels Or Delays Over 1,000 Flights

Matthew Klint Posted onAugust 19, 2021November 14, 2023 9 Comments

an airplane on the ground

American Airlines canceled or delayed over 1,000 flights on Wednesday, blaming operational disruptions on prior bad weather. Will further travel interruptions continue today?

Summer Woes Continue For American Airlines With Over 1,000 Cancellations Or Delays

Summer 2021 has been a summer of misery for American Airlines, as it faces a fundamental shortage of pilots that makes flight operations like a house of cards waiting to collapse. Bad weather in one station can wreak havoc across the system, leading to an avalanche of delays and cancellations.

This week is not shaping up well for American Airlines. Per FlightAware:

  • On Tuesday, August 17th American Airlines cancelled 284 flights (roughly 10% of its schedule) and delayed 438 flights (16% of its schedule)
  • On Wednesday, August 18th American Airlines cancelled 170 flights (6% of its schedule) and delayed 839 flights (29% of its schedule)

While American is not alone (Southwest and to a lesser extent United have also had a bad week), American Airlines is once again struggling with operational reliability and this time pilots are pointing fingers.

Last year, American Airlines furloughed over 1,000 pilots before federal payroll assistance kicked in. Pilots who were furloughed must be retrained before they can take to the skies and there has been a flight simulator backlog, which gives American little wiggle room when bad weather strikes and backup pilots are needed. When crews (flight attendants too) face delays and cancellations, they face “timeout” issues, which limit duty time between mandatory rest periods.

The Allied Pilots Association, the union representing AA pilots, notes that the issue goes beyond bad weather:

“Every airline gets hit by weather, but American seems to be less functional in management’s ability to get the aircraft crewed with pilots following a storm…

“They don’t have enough pilots to do the job!”

That’s directly from the mouth of Captain Dennis Tajer, a pilot for American and spokesman for the union. He told the San Antonio Express-News that 2/3 of cancellations are due to the pilot shortage, not the weather.

American, for its part, says it doing the best it can. Plans to close its pilot training center in Charlotte, North Carolina have been put on hold as AA experiences the largest and fastest growth in leisure travel in the 95-year history of the airline.

Check your flight status before heading to the airport. If your flight is severely delayed or cancelled, reaching out to American Airlines on Twitter often elicits a faster response than its call center. Check AA.com or American’s mobile app to see if you can rebook yourself.

CONCLUSION

This week is shaping up to be another operational disaster for American Airlines. While summer storms in Texas are hardly unusual, the lack of qualified pilots and overly-ambitious schedule continues to weigh American Airlines down.

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Previous Article Review: United Club Chicago O’Hare (ORD – C16)
Next Article Southwest Airlines Delays Over 1,300 Flights As Summer Of Misery Continues

About Author

Matthew Klint

Matthew is an avid traveler who calls Los Angeles home. Each year he travels more than 200,000 miles by air and has visited more than 135 countries. Working both in the aviation industry and as a travel consultant, Matthew has been featured in major media outlets around the world and uses his Live and Let's Fly blog to share the latest news in the airline industry, commentary on frequent flyer programs, and detailed reports of his worldwide travel.

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9 Comments

  1. Gravelly Point Guy Reply
    August 19, 2021 at 8:52 am

    Again!! Why did we blindly bail out these airlines with no preconditions or operational parameters established beforehand!! And where is all that money!? Where the hell is the money, where the hell did it go??? These are our airlines, OUR AIRLINES!! It was our money. Listen, no other industry got the bailouts these assholes got and look….It’s an operational disaster!! Fire goddamned Chug Darker and just shake things up!!

  2. stogieguy7 Reply
    August 19, 2021 at 10:41 am

    Great question from Gravelly Point about where the bailout money went! Because the intention of it was to keep the airlines solvent and people employed there. Yet, here we are more than a year later and AA is crying that they lack pilots. Why? Good question, Because that money was supposed to pay for adequate staffing (among other things).

    Also, why did many airlines do such a piss poor job of forecasting demand? Even as travel was rapidly rebounding, airlines were cutting routes/frequencies. Some did better than others with this, but every week I see airline schedule adjustments that have me shaking my head. Then there’s excess demand on the flights that survived and….when there’s a problem, instead of accommodating pax, the system melts down because it’s too lean.

  3. GetReal Reply
    August 19, 2021 at 11:43 am

    It’s called weather — DFW/DAL has had weather challenges and MIA had ATC challenges due to the new airspace redesign.

    • Matthew Klint Reply
      August 19, 2021 at 1:02 pm

      So why are pilots saying it is not the weather alone?

    • Steve Reply
      August 19, 2021 at 4:18 pm

      And yet it’s DFW and AA that melt down every time there’s a bolt of lightning within 600 miles of DFW. How come this doesn’t happen all the time with DL and their ATL mega-hub?

  4. Liz. M. Reply
    August 19, 2021 at 1:17 pm

    We should have flown from San Diego to Dfw to Waco on 08/17 at 8am. We have been given boarding passes for 4 flights with confirmed seats. Now we have more boarding passes for 08/20. Will we fly tomorrow? I hope so. Four days! American Airlines surely can do better. No help at all.

  5. stogieguy7 Reply
    August 19, 2021 at 1:36 pm

    “Weather” doesn’t destroy the entire schedule of a leading airline. It does, however, serve as a convenient excuse for poor management/planning and an excuse that gets it out of paying for accommodations for displaced passengers.

  6. RealityBen Reply
    August 19, 2021 at 2:50 pm

    The unions dating they want more dues-paying members means nothing. It may be true, it may be not, but a union rep claiming it carries very little information. Like a business owner cleaning his shop is the best in town.

  7. DC not in DC Reply
    August 19, 2021 at 9:45 pm

    AAmerican has updated its motto:

    Pre-Covid, “Blame it on the weather.”

    During Covid, “Blame it on Covid and the weather.”

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