According to the British "Guardian", American Airlines said on October 31 that due to the recent windy weather in Texas and the shortage of staff such as flight attendants, the company has cancelled nearly 1,600 flights in three days.
The report quoted flight information service FlightAware as saying that as of early afternoon of Oct. 31, American Airlines had cancelled more than 800 flights, accounting for almost 30 percent of the day's flight schedule. On October 29 and 30, American Airlines cancelled more than 900 flights.
The troubles for American Airlines began late last week, when American Airlines sometimes couldn't use all the runways of its busiest hub, Fort Dallas Worth International Airport, due to windy weather in Texas. On 30 and 31 October, flight cancellations and delays became more and more severe.
According to reports, the initial cause and scale of the flight disruption is similar to what Southwest Airlines experienced in early October: Southwest Airlines cancelled more than 2,000 flights in early October due to weather problems in Florida and staff shortages.
The Guardian said that during the COVID-19 epidemic, U.S. airlines were banned from layoffs as a condition of receiving federal benefits, but that did not stop them from convincing thousands of employees to voluntarily resign. Currently, American Airlines, Southwest Airlines and other airlines are hiring new people to replace departing employees.
Source: World Wide Web