American Airlines Cancels Hundreds Of Halloween Weekend Flights

ACROSS AMERICA — American Airlines canceled hundreds more flights Sunday at the end of a three-day Halloween weekend riddled by about 1,800 cancellations. The airline said normal flights will resume for the most part Monday, although there will be “some residual impact from the weekend.”

By Sunday afternoon, American had already canceled more than 100 Monday flights, according to the FlightAware tracking service. The more than 900 flights canceled Sunday represented one-third of the airline's schedule for the day. American Airlines scrapped nearly 900 flights over the previous two days, according to FlightAware.

The airlines problems began Thursday with weather problems at Dallas Love International Airport, its largest hub serving the Dallas-Fort Worth area, and staffing shortages that have plagued airlines industry-wide.

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About two-thirds of Sunday's cancellations were due to a lack of flight attendants in the right places, with almost all the remaining cancellations due to a shortage of pilots, according to internal figures seen by The Associated Press.

In a letter Saturday to employees, Chief Operating Officer David Seymour said high winds a DFW cut a large number of arrivals, according to a report by The Washington Post.

“This week saw two days of severe winds in DFW, with gusts of up to 50 mph on Thursday, creating crosswind limitations that sharply reduced arrival capacity by more than half,” Seymour wrote. “This weather drove a large number of cancellations at DFW, as we could only use two runways instead of the usual five that handle our operation.”

Staffing remains tight because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and some crew members “end up out of their regular flight sequences,” he wrote. “To make sure we are taking care of our customers and providing scheduling certainty for our crews, we have adjusted our operation for the last few days this month by proactively canceling some flights.”

Seymour reassured employees that the situation should begin to ease. Nearly 1,800 flight attendants who have been on various leaves are returning to work beginning this week. More crew members will return to work starting Dec. 1, and American Airlines plans to add another 600 flight attendants by month’s end.

Airlines are preparing for what is typically a busy holiday travel season, but also a rush of air traffic beginning Nov. 8 when the COVID-19 travel ban expires and U.S. borders once again open to vaccinated travelers from other countries.

Delta Air Lines Chief Executive Ed Bastian said lifting international travel restrictions will be “a bit sloppy at first” and travelers should brace for long lines at airports, Reuters reported.

"We're going to have a good surge of demand but in order to keep that surge up we're going to need to make it easier and easier for people to figure out what the documentation requirements are,” Bastian said at a U.S. travel event last week.

U.S. Travel Chief Executive Roger Dow told Reuters there may be “a few hiccups” if U.S. border officials aren’t fully prepared for what he expects to be a surge in international travel.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said at the travel event that he is confident “we’re going to be equipped to handle what we hope to be a real surge in holiday traffic.”

Earlier this month, Southwest Airlines cancelled hundreds of flights, citing bad weather and air traffic control issues. The airline and its pilots union denied reports of a sickout to protest mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations, The Associated Press reported.

Both American Airlines and Southwest are federal contractors and subject to the Biden administration’s executive order requiring federal employees to get COVID-19 vaccinations by Dec. 8.

Both airlines and the White House have said they don’t expect the order to cause a mass exodus of employees that would hamper airlines’ ability to meet the demands of increased holiday and international travel, according to Reuters.