US: Spate of flight cancellations prompts fears of holiday meltdown

The holidays are usually a busy season for US airlines, but this year will present a particular test. Airline executives are puzzling out how many seats to sell in the period falling roughly between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day while they contend with historic staffing constraints, a legacy of the coronavirus pandemic. Passengers returning to the skies have already encountered problems on some carriers. American Airlines on Monday was struggling with a fourth straight day of delays and cancellations after high winds blew across Texas last week, hitting more than a third of its flights. Southwest and Spirit have also had service failures in the past three months. The common denominator is a tight labour market that has affected the broad US economy, but is particularly acute for airlines that encouraged staff to take early retirement or voluntary leave when traffic collapsed last year. Now the companies are facing worker shortages across job categories, from pilots and flight attendants to gate agents, baggage handlers and customer service representatives. “They’re going to want to fly as much as possible, and the staffing shortages that have been a problem aren’t going away overnight,” said Joseph Rohlena, a Fitch Ratings analyst. “So it seems like there’s probably a higher possibility of trouble around this holiday season than there would have been.” Meanwhile, airlines are under pressure to sell more seats to domestic leisure flyers because many higher-paying business travellers are still staying at home. As air traffic declined 22% in Q3 from Q3 2019, according to the US TSA, average revenue at the four big US airlines was down a more severe 27%. Story has more.<br/>