As a result of a shortage of pilots, Texas-based American Airlines has decided to cut services to four cities in the US after the Labour Day holiday weekend in early September.
This announcement comes at a time when the US airline industry is already reeling under a shortage of pilots and other airline workers amid thousands of flight cancellations in recent months.
American Airlines in a statement on Tuesday said, the company will no longer serve Islip and Ithaca in New York; Toledo in Ohio; and Dubuque in Iowa beginning on September 7 due to a lack of pilots.
“We’ll proactively reach out to customers scheduled to travel after this date to offer alternate arrangements,” the statement said.
Due to the ongoing pilot shortage, not only American Airlines but a large number of other prominent airlines have also announced the cancellation of thousands of flights between now and Labour Day.
Almost 20,000 flights have been cut down by Southwest Airlines, as the airline giants are aspiring to hire 10,000 new workers to keep up with the travel needs of the travellers.
Delta Airlines claimed that they are also cutting around 100 flights daily from July 1 to August 7.
In an open letter to travellers, Delta said, “We have been working on our days off, flying a record amount of overtime to help you get to your destination. At the current rate, by this fall, our pilots will have flown more overtime in 2022 than in the entirety of 2018 and 2019 combined, our busiest years to date.”
With over 3,000 flights getting delayed and over 800 cancellations on Sunday alone, it doesn’t look like the situation is going to get better anytime soon.