American Airline’s grounds 1,000 flights as storms lash its Texas hub

Grounded: A screen showing cancelled flights at Los Angeles International Airport yesterday. Photo: Reuters

Thomas Black and Maria Elena Vizcaino

November 01 2021 02:30 AM

American Airlines cancelled more than 1,000 flights over the weekend and blamed the weather, particularly high winds earlier this week in Dallas, for the disruption.

The airline scrapped more than 600 flights yesterday, or about 12pc of total flight operations, an American spokeswoman said in an email.

That adds to 460 flights cancelled on Saturday after weather conditions affected its staffing needs.

It said it had 5,180 flights scheduled yesterday.

Two days of severe weather, including wind gusts of 80kmh, at its Dallas-Fort Worth hub kept three out of five runways shut, the company said.

The proactive cancellations are a “measure to minimise any inconvenience as much as possible”, Chief Operating Officer David Seymour said in the statement.

“Most of the customers impacted by these changes are being rebooked the same day.”

Air travel is picking up fast following more than a year of Covid-19 restrictions.

Airline passenger numbers in the US totalled 1.93 million last Thursday, more than twice the 873,636 figure on the same weekday a year earlier, according to the Transportation Security Administration.

“With additional weather throughout the system, our staffing begins to run tight as crew members end up out of their regular flight sequences,” Mr Seymour said.

“To make sure we are taking care of our customers and providing scheduling certainty for our crews, we have adjusted our operation for the last few days this month by pro-actively cancelling some flights.”

Staffing shortages are expected to ease as more than 1,800 flight attendants return from leave from today, and 600 new ones join by the end of the year, Mr Seymour said.

The company expects about 4,000 new employees across the system in the fourth quarter, he said.

Earlier in the week, the Biden administration issued new rules for travellers to the US, requiring proof of full vaccination against Covid-19 in addition to a recent negative test for the virus.

The moves taking effect next Monday represent the biggest change to US travel policy since the start of the pandemic.

FlightAware data showed American cancelled 670 flights yesterday, the most of any airline, and another 95 were delayed. China Eastern Airlines Corp. had the second-most, with 481 cancellations. (Bloomberg)