By Leslie Josephs -
CNBC
American Airlines canceled more than 1,500 flights since last Friday due to disruptions caused by staff shortages and high winds at its busiest airports, such as Dallas - Fort Worth International.
The airline canceled
about 340 flights on Friday and 543 on Saturday
, or the equivalent of 20% of its scheduled times, according to the record keeping site FlightAware.
Dallas-based Southwest Airlines canceled 86 flights or 2% of its Saturday operation.
American said in a statement sent to NBC News that it canceled an additional 630 flights in the early hours of Sunday.
Southwest Airlines eliminated 185 flights from its schedule, or an estimated 5% of its operations.
American Airlines Boeing 737 aircraft at Miami International Airport.Joe Raedle / Getty Images
[Cancellation of nearly 2,000 Southwest Airlines flights causes chaos]
A video shared on Twitter, recorded at the Charlotte, North Carolina airport, showed passengers waiting in a long line, accompanied by the message: "American Airlines needs to give its customer service agents in Charlotte a raise."
The airline's account on that social network has responded to dozens of annoyed customers, some of whom complained about the service and
others who expressed frustration and anger at the huge number of canceled flights.
American chief operating officer David Seymour said in a note Saturday that the problems began with strong gusts of wind that cut capacity at Dallas / Fort Worth International Airport, by causing
crew members to go missing. able to reach their respective positions for their next flights.
[Strong winds threaten traffic on highways in the northeast and far south of the US]
The availability of pilots, cabin attendants and flight attendants were cited as the reasons for most of the cancellations on Saturday and Sunday, according to internal documents accessed by CNBC.
"With this climate in our system, our employees begin to fall short when crew members wind up outside of their regular flight sequences," Seymour wrote.
He also explained that most of the clients were reassigned new flights that same day, and that he expects the operation to stabilize in November.
American Airlines cancels hundreds of flights due to understaffing and maintenance problems
June 21, 202100: 45
Airlines have had to deal with staff shortages that have resulted in hundreds of flight cancellations and other disruptions since demand for flights recovered in late spring.
[Passengers live a way of the cross due to the massive cancellations of American Airlines flights]
The companies managed to convince thousands of
staff
members
to accept voluntary licenses and permits to cut their salaries during the pandemic.
Now, they are trying to hire again:
pilots, flight attendants, ramp and customer service workers, and others.
The downsizing makes it much more difficult for airlines to recover from disruptions related to bad weather or technology problems.
Southwest said their collapse earlier this month, which caused the cancellation of more than 2,000 flights, cost them $ 75 million.
They also assured that they would further reduce their itineraries during the remainder of 2021 to avoid further interruptions.
American Airlines' Seymour said more than 1,800 flight attendants will return from their licenses as of November 1, with the rest returning in December.
He also reiterated that they are in the process of hiring pilots, mechanics, airport workers and reservation agents "so that the teams are ready for the holidays."