American Airlines experienced interruptions and cancellations last weekend in a flurry of cut flights that some speculated may have been similar to what Southwest Airlines experienced a few weeks ago which was ultimately blamed on crew objections to the company’s vaccine mandate.
Both Southwest and employee unions denied allegations that there had been a “sick out” over the requirements, and any speculation that American Airlines’ interruptions were due to a similar issue are just that.
All the same, it’s worthy of note as The Daily Caller reported that on Friday, 343 flights were cut, on Saturday, 548 were cut, and over 1,000 were cut on Sunday.
As of Monday morning, the airline had cut 2,291 flights according to data obtained by the media outlet, which is over 10% of its usual schedule.
Just landed at LAX…the line for American Airlines customer assistance pretty much goes as far as the eye can see through the terminal. Mass cancellations of flights today. @FoxNews pic.twitter.com/mtebgML9Bv
— Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) October 31, 2021
“With additional weather throughout the system, our staffing begins to run tight as crew members end up out of their regular flight sequences,” American Airlines Chief Operating Officer Davis Seymour said by way of explanation of the cut flights.
“To make sure we are taking care of our customers and providing scheduling certainty for our crews, we have adjusted our operations for the last few days this month by proactively canceling some flights,” the airline said in a statement.
Earlier in October, Southwest cut over 2,000 flights over one weekend, which is what prompted initial speculation that it was due to the company’s vaccine mandate.
President Joe Biden has issued vaccine mandates for federal contractors, which includes airline employees, via executive order, in addition to the now-finalized guidance from the Department of Labor mandating that companies employing over 100 people see that employees are vaccinated.
American Airlines and Southwest Airlines have also issued company-wide mandates that have been a point of contention with employee unions.
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