Weather and labour shortage continues to wreak havoc on air carriers. On Monday, American Airlines Group Inc (NASDAQ: AAL) cancelled another 340 flights representing about 6.0% of its planned schedule. In total, it has now cancelled nearly 2,300 flights over the past four days.
Shares of the airline are still up about 2.5% on Monday. Peer Southwest Airlines also made headlines last month as it cancelled hundreds of flights and ruined travel plans for many customers.
Demand is usually high in the holiday season
Traditionally, American Airlines would seek to increase flights in the final quarter of the year to meet the higher demand in the holiday season. This year, however, it continues to struggle on limited availability of the flight crew.
In a statement this morning, the Association of Professional Flight Attendants (APFA) confirmed that American Airlines was facing staffing-led turbulence.
Flight attendant staffing at American Airlines is strained and reflects what is happening across the industry as we continue to deal with pandemic-related issues.
Things to start getting better from today
Spokeswoman Sarah Jantz, however, expects things to start getting better from today as roughly 1,800 of American Airlines’ flight attendants return from leave.
We expect considerable improvement beginning today with some residual impact from the weekend.
Among other challenges for American Airlines is the rising fuel and labour costs. The news comes more than a week after the air carrier attributed its Q3 loss to the delta variant of the Coronavirus that weighed on business travel in the latter part of the quarter.
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