American Airlines cancels thousands more flights over the summer to help keep its schedule on track
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- American Airlines has canceled close to another 1,200 flights in an effort to reduce disruptions.
- The Allied Pilots Association told Bloomberg it was shocked by the timing of the decision.
- Thousands of passengers have had flights canceled or lost their luggage in the summer travel chaos.
American Airlines has canceled almost 1,200 more flights in a effort to minimise last-minute disruption to schedules.
The Allied Pilot Association told its members in an email seen by Insider that the airline "is once again acknowledging that they cannot honor their published schedule" and was going ahead with the cancelations taking effect as early as July 27.
Dennis Tajer, a spokesperson for the union that represents AA pilots, told Bloomberg it was "shocked that this is happening at this late stage" of the peak summer travel season.
The union's vice-president, Chris Torres, told members: "Let's be clear here: management planned for more capacity than they could handle and did so with improperly constructed schedules."
Torres said the airline made the decision before a conference call on Thursday for the company's second-quarter results "but intentionally delayed any announcement until after those two events."
The union "received no advance notice of any kind, and neither did our passengers, which is unfortunately all too typical of our airline's management," he added.
According to the email seen by Insider, the cancelations came just two days after August schedules were finalized.
AA had already revealed plans to reduce flight capacity by up to a tenth this quarter and by 9.5% for 2022 as a whole compared with pre-pandemic levels, Bloomberg reported.
American posted net profit of $476 million for the three months to June 30, up from $19 million for the same period last year. Revenue jumped 12% to $13.4 billion despite operating 8.5% fewer flights than the same quarter in 2019.
Shares fell 2.5% on Friday in New York and have lost almost 8% this week.
Passengers have experienced severe disruptions as airlines struggle to cope with demand for air travel this summer.
Thousands of flights have been canceled, passengers have had their luggage gone missing, a child was temporarily lost in Miami airport by AA, and a couple was left stranded in Mexico for two days after their flight was canceled twice.
American Airlines did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
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