It was a remarkably smooth Thanksgiving holiday for US airlines and now American Airlines is taking a victory lap in celebration.
American Airlines Celebrates Smooth Operations Over Thanksgiving Holiday
Mild weather was a huge factor, but I do think that for the first time since the pandemic, most US airlines finally have their act together. Staffing has returned to normal, operations are in full swing, and though it is a bit of an “I’ll know it when I see it” moment, it does seem to me like US carriers have made progress this year in terms of operational reliability.
Certainly, there will be delays and cancellations every time there is a storm, but I am hopeful there will be no meltdowns this season. That remains to be seen.
American Airlines enjoyed a particularly smooth holiday and issued a gloating press release highlighting that.
American Airlines produced a record-setting Thanksgiving operation for the airline — including getting more customers than ever to their Thanksgiving tables, while canceling fewer flights to date than any other Thanksgiving in its history.
Some highlights from the perspective of AA:
- American flew 6.5 million customers on more than 59,000 flights over the Thanksgiving holiday, marking the highest-ever load factor for these dates.
- To date, American has canceled fewer flights than any other Thanksgiving period in its history. From Nov. 16–26, the airline has canceled only 55 out of more than 59,400 scheduled flights — just 0.09% of our schedule, with nearly all the cancellations weather-related.
- American went nine days (Nov. 16–24) without canceling a single mainline flight.
- Despite a snowstorm in Chicago O’Hare (ORD), the operation ran smoothly with no cancellations associated with the hub.
Now I think we all remember that former CEO Doug “Nostradamus” Parker predicted American Airlines would never lose money again…hahahahahaha.
> Read More: Doug “Nostradamus” Parker: AA will Never Lose Money Again
I will stop far short of saying that American Airlines will never have a meltdown again (or Delta or United or Southwest). But from everything I have seen the systems are in place now to make such events less likely, and that is something that consumers should celebrate.
CONCLUSION
American Airlines is touting its smooth Thanksgiving and I applaud the carrier for its smooth operations during this period. The test will come when the weather gets worse and whether AA has learned its lesson not to stretch operations so thin that a storm in one city causes a nationwide ripple effect of delays and cancellations. That will be the true test.
image: American Airlines
Weather was the factor and nothing else.
As stated above, this is a joke. Weather is responsible for 99% of meltdowns and are something no airline can overcome.
I fly AA almost exclusively but I’m also a realist. This company is worth 20% of what it was just 5 years ago. All the “records” they claim haven’t been turned into profits.
Hard for a stockholder not to say the company was better off under Parker. Then again, I miss USAir.
As the others have mentioned, weather is a huge issue to delays for the US.
It’s all a marketing stunt to be honest. I’ve stopped flying with AA a long time ago because if they’re not late, then they’ll make it up by giving a bad experience on board.
<b?I will stop far short of saying that American Airlines will never have a meltdown again (or Delta or United or Southwest). But from everything I have seen the systems are in place now to make such events less likely, and that is something that consumers should celebrate.
What exactly have you seen? Did you get a BTS tour of these systems and their scheduling, MX, IT, and Ops departments to know? I flew AA over the holiday and, admittedly, everything went well…from D0 times being spot on, to my status upgrades, etc…but it’s nigh impossible to remotely claim that any of the US3 have their shit together until the next big Wx issue.
I’m all for credit where it’s due – and I had a smooth Thanksgiving, many thanks to AA – but with the amount of money airlines received during Covid, the shitty Terms of Carriage that are meant to screw customers, the minimal amount of gov’t oversight since deregulation, and – most importantly – the fact that Wx is NOT a new problem for any airline at all in the US (especially when two of them have hubs in Chicago which is a stupid decision from the start), meltdowns like last year should simply not occur. So we shouldn’t be congratulating or remotely praising airlines for merely doing what is expected and what they’ve had decades to practice.
I addressed your comment below – the problem is not weather alone, but slack in schedule and the systems which regulate crew management and operations that can make or break during a storm.
Frankly, I couldn’t disagree more with the AA victory lap, I was scheduled to depart ORD at 9:29 AM Sunday and after boarding the entire plane, they announces that the plane, an Airbus 321 had two flat tires. Yes, no one noticed until after boarding even though the plane was parked somewhere at ORD overnight. They then boarded us 2-3 hours later only to annouce after 20 minutes, that we had to deplane a second time due to some brake fan issue. They then closed the gate and told all passengers to go to the Customer Assistannce Center which of course was inudated. That original flight finally took off 12 hours later at like 9 PM. AA has given me some miles but the amount doesn’t justify the hassle we had waiting 12 hour to get on another flight. BTW there was no snow storm in Chicago. Yes, it snowed but the snow was light and manageable. AA is full of it
Flew AA the weekend before Thanksgiving and again Wednesday and Saturday of the holiday week. The entire industry navigated the week well strictly due to weather that mostly cooperated. Where weather was an issue, it was late in the evening or not enough to throw operations into chaos. Absolutely nothing else. All my AA flights departed on time or a few minutes early, and arrived early. AA achieved nothing greater or more spectacular than what the rest of its peers were able to, other than B6.
AA still has problems (many), but I don’t really understand the negativity in the comment sections. AA’s thanksgiving operation was reflective of their improved operational performance over the past year and their intense focus on it, weather or not. AA hasn’t had an operational meltdown in years now. You can’t say the same for Delta or Southwest (even United had the EWR meltdown recently when Scott flew private but that seemed more weather related unlike Southwest and DL that had weather compounded by their own mess ups)
It amazes me that airlines celebrate when they achieve exactly what is expected of them. There is nothing here that is above and beyond. They simply met expectations.
Right… A record setting thanksgiving travel weekend, the best in Company history. In fairness to AA, that’s not what any commenter expected of AA, they seem to expect the worst.
Some people just seem to love the negative in every story and can’t stand that a company would note that they’re better than they’ve ever been before. There have been many many weather-free Thanksgivings in AA’s history and they still beat that. Give it a rest. It’s ok to let customers know that AA’s operational performance not improved over the year, but over the holiday period, especially during a time when AA’s flight attendants are out there trying to worry customers about a strike (which, as we know now, for sure isn’t happening)
So all you are saying is that they have failed on their objectives and goals all the time so once in a lifetime they achieve those objectives we have to give them credit. How would you feel about an employee that drops the ball every year on the goals and objectives you have expected for him/her and once they simply deliver the objectives (not exceeding them) you have to congratulate them.
It’s a pity aa doesn’t have you as their ceo. You clearly know how to run complex networks via simple analogies 😉
A group of monkeys could probably do a better job, if we’re being tongue-in-cheek and not actually looking at facts.
@All: I know weather is a huge factor, but it weather alone is not what cripples operations. It is also systems (i.e. Southwest meltdown) and being stretched too thin such that there are an inadequate number of reserve pilots and flight attendants (plus aircraft) available in case of trouble in one region or airport. This is progress and is more than just weather.
Back in the day, airlines used to keep many crews with the planes. In a weather event, that aircraft would be delayed. Now software is used to optimize crew time. If a hub like DFW is impacted, crew is trapped on planes because the gates are full. Planes at gates can’t move because they have no crew since the crew is on planes waiting for a gate. No amount of reserve or standby crew can fix that issue.
Maybe, but it does seem a bit like they are patting themselves on the back for…not screwing up and actually doing what they are supposed to be doing?
Flew AA SDF/ORD/MSP on Sunday. Snow at ORD threw a wrench in the works, obvs, but I saw no red on the status boards. Many if not most flights were showing serious delays.
I got there, eight hours late, but I made it. So did my checked bag.
Let’s see if I have this right: a major business is congratulating itself for having performed its basic, core functions? Isn’t that like Amana patting itself on the back for refrigerators that keep cool or Honda for having cars that turn on and operate as per expectations ? What hubris. Granting that the meltdowns of last year were aberrations due to weather, poor logistics, bad software whatever, then you don’t get to congratulate yourself for getting your business model right this once.
They did the bare minimum — getting paying customers to their destination.