American Airlines canceled tons of of flights over the previous weekend and plans to cancel maybe 1000’s extra by means of mid-July, in keeping with a number of news reports. The airline blames the cancellations on quite a few components, together with employees shortages, dangerous climate, and an enormous improve in demand for flights for the reason that covid-19 pandemic has lastly began to calm down within the United States.

“The first few weeks of June have brought unprecedented weather to our largest hubs, heavily impacting our operation and causing delays, canceled flights and disruptions to crew member schedules and our customers’ plans,” Stacy Day, a spokesperson for American Airlines, informed Gizmodo over e mail.

“That, combined with the labor shortages some of our vendors are contending with and the incredibly quick ramp up of customer demand, has led us to build in additional resilience and certainty to our operation by adjusting a fraction of our scheduled flying through mid-July.”

American didn’t disclose to Gizmodo what number of cancellations it plans for the approaching weeks, however ABC News reviews it’s prone to be between 50 and 80 per day.

From ABC News:

As of Sunday afternoon, 123 flights had been canceled Saturday, 178 on Sunday and 97 had been canceled for Monday – largely the results of a excessive variety of sick calls, mixed with upkeep and different staffing points.

American informed ABC News that a lot of the cancelations are on A320 and 737 plane, however that it might proceed to cancel no less than 50 to 60 flights per day for the remainder of June and 50 to 80 flights per day by means of July.

The canceled flights are roughly 1% of the airline’s capability for the interval however demonstrates simply how troublesome it may be to shuffle so many flights in an effort get again to some sort of pre-pandemic “normal” so shortly. American assures passengers they’re doing the whole lot they will to make it as painless as doable.

“We made targeted changes with the goal of impacting the fewest number of customers by adjusting flights in markets where we have multiple options for re-accommodation,” Day continued in her assertion to Gizmodo.

“Our focus this summer―and always―is on delivering for our customers no matter the circumstance. We never want to disappoint, and feel these schedule adjustments will help ensure we can take good care of our customers and team members and minimize surprises at the airport.”

Have you booked a flight on American between now and July 15? You would possibly wish to contact the airline and be sure to’re nonetheless good to go.