American Airlines Accidentally Let Too Many Pilots Take Holiday Time Off
More than 15,000 flights may be affected as Christmas nears.
By Felicia Czochanski on November 29, 2017
It may seem like a very generous thing that American Airlines did by giving plenty of holiday time to their pilots. However, this has backfired…and it’s not their fault.
A glitch in American Airlines’ pilot scheduling system means that thousands of flights during the holiday season currently do not have pilots assigned to fly them.
According to NPR, the shortage was caused by an error in the system pilots use to bid for time off.
“The airline is a 24/7 op,” union spokesman Dennis Tajer told CNBC. “The system went from responsibly scheduling everybody to becoming Santa Claus to everyone.”
“The computer said, ‘Hey ya’ll. You want the days off? You got it.’ ”
Tajer estimates the number of affected flights at more than 15,000 in the critical holiday travel period of Dec. 17 to Dec. 31.
American Airlines didn’t specify the cause of the shortage or exactly how many flights would be affected, but acknowledged they were scrambling to “address the issue.”
