Due to computer scheduling issues that left thousands of flights with understaffed cockpits, American Airlines has agreed to pay its pilots thrice their usual wage.
The scheduling program malfunctioned early on Saturday morning, allowing pilots to cancel flights that the airline was expecting to fly for the remainder of this month to take time off. As a result, according to the Allied Pilots Association, the pilots union at American, which employs about 13,000 APA members, the number of flights that were left without one or both essential pilots swiftly surpassed the 12,000 mark.
Although the triple pay is only available once, American Airlines has also promised to permanently double the compensation for pilots who fly on peak days, which frequently coincide with peak travel times around holidays.
The issue arises as American (AAL) and other US airlines struggle to handle an increase in flight cancellations caused by a manpower shortfall.
The lack of crew members has forced the whole airline sector to cancel hundreds of US flights so far this summer. Over holiday weekends, such as Memorial Day, the weekend of Father’s Day, Juneteenth, and the Fourth of July holiday, cancellations have frequently increased. Over the previous year’s Christmas and New Year’s travel period, there was also a spike in cancellations.
The nation’s largest airline had a unique combination of issues as a result of computer errors. According to the FlightAware tracking service, more than 800 flights, or around 26% of those booked, were delayed and close to 200 American planes, or roughly 6% of its schedule, were canceled.
According to American spokesperson Matt Miller, the number of flights that were delayed or canceled on Wednesday due to the scheduling error is unknown. However, it is evident that scheduling conflicts mostly caused the troubles, according to American pilot and union representative Dennis Tajer.
Tajer noted that things returned to normal very fast after talks between the pilots union leadership and American’s new CEO, Robert Isom.
The APA’s president, Ed Sicher, expressed his optimism that this accord could serve as a springboard for negotiating a new labor agreement for American pilots in a statement to the organization’s members.
Since 2019, the union and the airline have been discussing a new contract; however, the epidemic prevented them from reaching a long-term deal. As a result, a 2015 contract that had been scheduled for renegotiation in 2020 is still in effect for pilots.
