Published on : Tuesday, July 16, 2019
The airline blames it on a prolonged slowdown by its mechanics unions to gain leverage in contract negotiations. It says workers are taking an “inordinately long time to repair aircraft” and are refusing overtime work.
American warned of summer travel trouble when it sued the Transport Workers Union of America, AFL-CIO and International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers just before Memorial Day. The unions says there is no organised slowdown and blames American management for the operational woes. American’s pilot union also pins the blame on management for not having enough pilots to fill in when problems arise.
A federal judge immediately granted American’s request for a temporary restraining in mid-June, but the maintenance cancellations continue a month later. It’s as if the temporary restraining order was never issued, the airline says.
In a court filing this week seeking additional measures to compel the union to comply with the temporary restraining order and stop the slowdown, American said it cancelled nearly 600 flights due to maintenance issues in the three weeks after the temporary restraining order was granted on June 14, affecting 85,000 passengers, including Wolfe. That compares with 644 “mechanics-caused” cancellations over a roughly two month period (March 8-May 13), the airline says.
American said the number of aircraft out of service at the beginning of the day, which has ripple effects on American’s operation and hurts its ability to recover from storms, hit 66 on June 18, one of the highest levels ever and nearly double the level of unscheduled aircraft out of service American builds into its schedule.
Add in a spike in weather cancellations, especially at American’s mammoth Dallas hub, which has been hit by a series of storms, and the carrier and its passengers are having a miserable summer.
American led the industry in overall cancellations in June, with 4% of flights cancelled, according to aviation data company masFlight. The airline cancelled 3,900 flights, compared with nearly 1,600 in June 2018.And it is on track to take the dubious crown in July, too. American has cancelled more than 3% of its July flights through July 10, according to masFlights, with 970 cancellations versus 366 in the same period a year ago. Airlines generally aim to keep the cancellation rate at 1% or below.
The poor performance this summer comes after American’s executives pledged to get the operation back on track following an unexpectedly poor summer in 2018.
Brett Snyder, whose Cranky Concierge travel service includes help rebooking canceled and delayed flights, has heard an earful about American recently.
“People are just mad,” he said.
Passengers don’t care whether their flight is cancelled for a mechanical issue, weather or other reasons, Snyder said.
“All they really know is that American is not running a good operation,” he said.
American acknowledges its nonstop flight woes this summer might drive travellers to other airlines, short term or permanently.
Tags: American Airlines