If You’re Flying Christmas Week You May Be In Trouble Because 15,000 Flights Have No Pilots


American Airlines

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Two of the busiest flying travel days of the year are Christmas and New Year’s Eve. Guess what? Those are the two hectic holidays that may not have pilots for over 15,000 flights. A potential travel disaster that is waiting to happen is threatening to ruin the holidays for thousands of flyers. The possible travel nightmare is stemming from a computer glitch on American Airlines that could cause many to miss the holidays with their family and loved ones.

Thousands of American Airlines flights could be grounded during one of the busiest travel weeks of the year. The system error was disclosed to pilots on Friday and reported by numerous media outlets on Wednesday. The computer malfunction affects pilots’ bid for vacation time and caused a scheduling situation that left over 15,000 flights without pilots. The scheduling error gave time off to too many cockpit crew members during the last two weeks if December. The glitch that stole Christmas could affect flights from December 17-31. You know, the busiest two weeks of travel all year. “On Friday, management disclosed a failure within the pilot schedule bidding system,” the Allied Pilots Association said in a statement. “As a result, thousands of flights currently do not have pilots assigned to fly them during the upcoming critical holiday period.”

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“We are working through this to make sure we take care of our pilots and get our customers where they need to go over the holiday,” American Airlines spokesman Matt Miller said on Wednesday. American Airlines is already attempting to fix the situation before it becomes a gargantuan P.R. nightmare. The worldwide airline may attempt to bribe pilots to work by promising extra pay. American Airlines sent an email to employees offering one-and-a-half times their normal rate of pay to entice them to work, which is the maximum allowed in their contract.

However, a grievance filed by the union against management said that the restrictions on overtime pay were a violation of the group’s contract. The union claims responded, “Because management unilaterally created their solution in violation of the contract, neither APA nor the contract can guarantee the promised payment of the premium being offered.”

“Basically there’s a crisis at American for manning the cockpits,” said Dennis Tajer, a spokesman for the Allied Pilots Association. I’m sure when people aren’t able to get for the holidays because of a computer glitch they will totally understand and not burn down the airline’s ticket counter. Can’t we just turn on the autopilot?

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[NYP]