American Airlines cancels 600 more flights

American Airlines canceled 634 flights on Sunday, bringing over 12 percent of its daily operations to a halt. 

The airline has cancelled over 1,500 flights since Friday amid weather-related problems and staffing shortages, CNN reported. 

“With additional weather throughout the system, our staffing begins to run tight as crew members end up out of their regular flight sequences,” the airline told CNN. 

The company added that inclement weather in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, where the airline’s largest hub is, combined with staffing shortages contributed to the cancellations.

As air travel suffered during the pandemic, airlines were forced to cut employees in an effort to deal with lost revenue. As the companies now look to refill those roles, the hiring process has caused gaps in service and made disruptions more frequent. 

American Airlines told CNN that in addition to increasing fourth quarter hiring efforts, it expects 1,800 flight attendants to return to work Monday and even more employees are expected to return to their positions by Dec. 1. 

Earlier this month, Southwest Airlines canceled nearly 2,000 flights over a weekend, which it blamed on air traffic control (ATC) and weather-related issues. However, those cancellations were seemingly limited to Southwest.

American Airlines was also in the headlines recently after a passenger assaulted a flight attendant, forcing the flight to be diverted. 

Since then, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg had said that a federal no-fly list for violent airplane passengers should be considered.