American To Cancel Hundreds Of Flights Even As Travel Demand Surges
A combination of labor shortages, a surge in demand and challenging weather events has American Airlines canceling several hundred flights through at least mid-July. As the coronavirus pandemic slowly ebbs,…

A combination of labor shortages, a surge in demand and challenging weather events has American Airlines canceling several hundred flights through at least mid-July. As the coronavirus pandemic slowly ebbs, passengers are flocking to airports to resume traveling over the summer months. Meanwhile, the airlines and their vendors are having trouble ramping up hiring and rehiring employees to stem the tide. Also, a spate of dangerous weather in early June caused delays and disruptions that have rippled through the following weeks.
Shannon Gibson, a spokesperson for American, told CNN, "The first few weeks of June have brought unprecedented weather to our largest hubs, heavily impacting our operation and causing delays, canceled flights and disruptions to crew member schedules and our customers' plans. That, combined with the labor shortages some of our vendors are contending with and the incredibly quick ramp up of customer demand, has led us to build in additional resilience and certainty to our operation by adjusting a fraction of our scheduled flying through mid-July."
American canceled 120 flights on Saturday (June 19), and expects to cancel 50 to 80 flights daily through mid-July, Gibson said. Ticket-holders will be notified whether their flights are among those canceled, American said. Also, the airline is attempting to spread out the cancellations systemwide, though it expects its Dallas-Ft. Worth hub to be most affected.
