American Airlines continued its streak of cancellations over the Halloween weekend. A quarter of its scheduled flights, 634 of them, were cancelled on Sunday.
The airline blamed weather control issues such as strong winds from Dallas and ongoing staff shortages due in part to layoffs made during travel collapse at the beginning of the COVID epidemic.
According to FlightAware, the airline has cancelled more than 1,500 flights since Friday, with 738 delays, 342 cancellations and 738 delays.
Saturday saw 543 flights cancelled and more than 400 delayed.
American Airlines released a statement to CNN stating that crew members are forced to fly in additional weather conditions.
After new cancellations, angry passengers shared a snap from an AA line at Dallas Fort Worth on Sunday.
Lines stretched around the Texas airport’s terminal. 634 flights – one quarter of the airline’s scheduled schedule – were canceled, bringing the total number of cancellations over the weekend to 1,500
Weather conditions in Dallas-Fort Worth are a major reason for cancellations and delays throughout the weekend.
Two days of strong winds have left passengers stranded at Dallas Fort Wort International Airport.
Wind conditions are currently at 9mph. They were reported to have strong gusts earlier this weekend, with a record high of 60mph on Friday.
This has led to a knock-on effect: staff who were able to work longer hours on canceled or delayed flights have been unable to cover later flights.
Over Halloween weekend, a host of angry passengers took advantage of social media to vent their frustrations over delays and cancellations.
Passengers furious at the weekend’s cancellations and delays took to Twitter.
‘NEVER FLYING @AmericanAir AGAIN after a cancellation now the flight the next day is DELAYED I just wanna get home,’ @EdenVerity posted on Twitter along with a screenshot of her Snapchat post showing that she was flying out of DFW Airport.
‘Thanks for canceling our 1pm flight at 7:45am. I am looking forward to spending 13 hours driving with my family.@carsmely said it.
‘I will make sure that my family & friends never fly with you again. It is unacceptable that you did this to us and to hundreds of customers waiting at DFW for cancelled flights. The flying industry has the lowest standards of customer service! #aa’, @madelamo shared photos of the long lines at DFW
Others attributed delays and cancellations by airlines to the COVID mandate, which forced workers to quit or were terminated because they didn’t comply.
‘If @AmericanAir can’t staff their flights, they shouldn’t sell seats on those flights! AA received $7.5B of taxpayer money for COVID. They posted huge profits and then cancelled 1,600 flights in 3 days? #congressionalinvesitgatilon,’ @richardbarney tweeted.
American Airlines and Southwest Airlines CEOs announced on October 21 that they would not terminate unvaccinated workers if they received an exemption.
After the Biden administration’s announcement about the mandate for federal contractors, including AA, the order to vaccinate airline workers came into effect.
American Airlines, who issued the mandate on November 24, stated that workers must apply to the medical or religious exemption for the vaccine if they want to continue working for them.
American Airlines cancelled 634 flights on Sunday because of strong winds in Dallas-Fort Worth, staff shortages, and two days of strong wind.
American Airlines has stated that they will continue hiring towards the end the year for new positions.
Additionally, 1,800 flight attendants are expected to return to the company Monday. More are also expected to return to the company on December 1.
The airline experienced a string cancellations last weekend due to an outage by SkyWest, their regional partner.
Over a thousand flights between American Airlines and United, Delta and Alaska were cancelled.
Passengers were left stranded at airports due to cancellations or delays. Flight crews were also grounded.