American Airlines, citing poor weather and thin staffing, canceled another 634 flights on Sunday, bringing its weekend total to more than 1,500.
Strong winds in North Texas over the past two days and inclement weather in other parts of the country forced the Fort Worth, Texas-based company to ground planes at key airports, The Dallas Morning News reported.
“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 CEO David Seymour stated in a Saturday memo to employees. “To make sure we are taking care of our customers and providing scheduling certainty for our crews, we have adjusted our operation for the last few days this month by proactively canceling some flights.”
According to the flight-tracking website FlightAware, the airline canceled 541 flights, or 20% of its operation, on Saturday, KXAS reported. At least 398 flights were delayed, the television station reported.
>> Southwest Airlines cancels hundreds more flights
American Airlines canceled 342 flights on Friday and 737 were delayed, according to KXAS.
Saturday’s canceled flights nationwide included 96 at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, a spokesperson for American Airlines told the Star-Telegram of Fort Worth.
American Airlines said staffing issues should ease beginning Monday when 1,800 flight attendants will return from leave, CNN reported. More will be back at work by Dec. 1, according to the airline.
American Airlines is not the only airline facing issues. Dallas-based Southwest Airlines had 1,150 delays on Friday but only 21 cancellations, the Morning News reported. Southwest had 493 delays on Saturday, according to the newspaper.
Southwest canceled more than 2,000 weekend flights earlier this month.