American Airlines problem cancels thousands of July flights

• A scheduling bug caused hundreds of American Airlines flights to be cancelled over the weekend.
• The airline and union are debating additional pay for those whose flights were later reinstated.
• More than 12,000 flights in July were operated without a captain, first officer or both.

According to their union, a scheduling platform bug caused American Airlines pilots to cancel hundreds of July assignments over the course of one day on Saturday. This caused the company problems as it works to reduce flight interruptions during a busy travel season.

American stated that it didn’t anticipate the issue to have an impact on its operations, even over the busy Fourth of July weekend. According to the Allied Pilots Association, the union and airline are currently debating additional pay for pilots whose cancelled trips were later reinstated.

The airline issued a statement explaining that “as a result of this technological failure, certain trip trading transactions were able to be performed when it shouldn’t have been allowed.” We have already fixed the great majority of the impacted journeys, therefore we don’t expect this to have any operational repercussions.

According to the Allied Pilots Association, more than 12,000 flights in July were operated without a captain, first officer, or both as a result of pilots abandoning their assigned duties. According to APA, the airline resumed around 80% of the flights.

As schedules peak to meet high demand, pilots can routinely drop or pick up trips, but airline employees struggle to find time off during the summer or during major holidays.

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According to an internal count, American had more than 3,000 mainline flights scheduled just for Saturday, and they were 93 percent filled. However, unstaffed flights put an additional burden on any airline.

When the Fourth of July weekend got off to a shaky start due to thunderstorms and staffing concerns, thousands of American flights were delayed and hundreds were cancelled.

A similar incident arose in 2017, allowing American’s pilots to take time off during the busy December holiday season due to a technical glitch. In exchange for accepting assignments, the carrier promised pilots a 150 percent salary increase.

Negotiations for a new contract between American and its pilots’ union are now underway. The airline has most recently proposed pay increases of approximately 17 percent through 2024.

American Airlines CEO Robert Isom pledged to pay a “inconvenience premium” to pilots whose travels American placed back on their schedules as a result of the mistake, according to union president Capt. Ed Sicher, who began his term as president of the union on Friday.

Sicher tweeted late Saturday that “to Mr. Isom’s credit, he contacted me four times today to commit to reducing the harm from this catastrophe.” Although the specifics of this pay are still being negotiated and neither the specifics nor the quantities are guaranteed, we started at a 200 percent override.

Regarding Sicher’s advice to pilots, American Airlines declined to comment.

Recently, American pilots have demonstrated against their demanding schedules because they seek a new contract to solve this issue. Recently, pilots at Delta and Southwest have protested for the same causes.

Sicher also expressed optimism on contract negotiations with American, particularly with regard to matters involving quality of life.

Please be aware that no definite promises have been made as of yet, but he wrote, “I feel that we have, at least for the first time since negotiations began, received positive indications that management is motivated to achieve collaborative solutions to long-standing problems with our current contract that will greatly enhance our ability to trade our trips and, as a result, enhance our quality of life.

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