Why Airline Bailouts Couldn’t Prevent Airport Chaos
Hundreds of canceled American Airlines flights are a byproduct of the disruptions of managing the Covid recovery. There could be worse problems.
Meeting the needs of a surge in travel demand isn’t as easy as flipping a switch.
Photographer: FangXiaNuo/iStock Unreleased via Getty Images
The recent weekend chaos at U.S. airports has left some wondering what the point was of bailing out the airline industry during the pandemic. But the hundreds of canceled flights at American Airlines Group Inc. actually show why that aid was needed in the first place.
American scrapped about 775 flights over the weekend and into Monday as bad weather exacerbated a dearth of flight-ready pilots. Maintenance pileups and hiring logjams at third-party vendors that provide catering and refueling services are also straining the system. To help ease the pressure, the carrier said it would cull about 1% of its planned daily flights through mid-July.