American Airlines suffered a massive computer glitch that allowed its pilots to take off the week of Christmas. This caused a lot of issues for the airline because it had over 15,000 planes that were without pilots to operate them during the week of Christmas. After offering incentives and overtime pay to pilots, the company is still struggling to address all planes that are without pilots.
American says that out of the 200,000 flights that are scheduled to fly in December, “only a few hundred” still currently lack pilot assignments to operate them. “That number of open flights continues to decrease thanks to our pilots who are stepping up to the plate and picking up trips to ensure customers are taken care of,” the airlines said in a statement.
The airline continues to address the flights that are without pilots, but the interesting thing here is that this computer glitch over 15,000 planes were affected by this issue. Thousands of passengers would have had to cancel their flights if American did not immediately start offering incentives to pilots so they can operate flights without assignments.
American continues to stay confident that it will find the pilots it needs to cover the rest of the planes that need assignments. It’s a good step in the right direction because American doesn’t want to lose business during the busiest time of the year. “[W]e have more reserve pilots on hand in December than normal months and they provide us with the ability to fly many of the trips that are currently uncovered,” the company stated. “We have not canceled any scheduled flights in December and will continue to work to ensure both our pilots and our customers are cared for.”
