(Dmytro “Henry” Aleksandrov, Headline USA) Thousands of airline passengers were left high and dry in the hectic run-up to July Fourth travel, with a large part of blame being cast on pilot shortages in backlash to COVID mandates.
Nearly 6,000 US flights were delayed on Thursday before the holiday weekend and another 639 were canceled, reported the Daily Mail.
One of the reasons why so many flights are canceled is because of Delta Airlines’ pilots strike. Because of that, Delta warned customers to brace for delays or cancelations of their flights.
However, Delta is not the only company that experiences problems. American Airlines reportedly experienced delays on more than 700 flights, 88% of which were triggered by staffing shortages.
To make the number of cancelations appear lower, the company delayed flights up to a full day before planned take-offs, according to the Post Millennial .
Pilot Dennis Tajer, Communications Committee chairman for the Allied Pilots Association, also said the company doesn’t have enough pilots and staffing to fly their summer schedule.
“American Airlines is claiming that they have the pilots to fly the summer schedule,” Tajer said. “We don’t believe them.
“Based on our numbers, they do not have the pilots and staffing to get this done. We’ve warned them for months and months. This is a broken record, the needle is skipping on the same groove of the vinyl.”
Some pilots attempted to work overtime to do something about the prices, but American Airlines “refused to play ball,” according to Tajer.
“The house is on fire. We have buckets of water and they’ve told us not to move,” he said.
“What’s even worse, we have solutions to better utilize us. We’ve told them for the last two summers, but they’re not interested.”
