Over Halloween weekend it was reported that American Airlines canceled over 1,700 flights (2,200 according to The Independent) blaming everything from “staffing problems” to “Weather” at their busiest hub airport and this is merely the most recent in a string of flight cancelations as airlines attempt to cope with pilots and crews pushing back defiantly against employer imposed vaccine mandates. The airline giants euphemistically referred to “Pilot and flight attendant availability” as one of the reasons for the cancelations, with no mention of the widely reported blowback to vaccine mandates they’ve received from their pilots and crews. This explanation was met with disbelief and derision as it was trumpeted by mainstream media outlets like CNBC CBS and The Wallstreet Journal.
American Airlines has canceled 600 flights today and 1,500 flights since Friday…because of weather.
Just look at that horrific clear sky weather from coast to coast out there currently.
PS. The airline has a vaccine mandate in place for employees…but I doubt that's related. pic.twitter.com/L0P4lxxANd
— Keith Malinak (@KeithMalinak) October 31, 2021
American’s COO David Seymour wrote a staff note Saturday according to CNBC that, “the problems started with high wind gusts on Thursday that cut capacity at its Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport hub and that crew members ended up out of position for their next flights.”
“Pilot and flight attendant availability were listed as reasons for most of the cancellations on Saturday and Sunday, according to internal tallies, which were seen by CNBC.”
“With additional weather throughout the system, our staffing begins to run tight as crew members end up out of their regular flight sequences,” Seymour wrote. He said that most customers were rebooked the same day and that he expects the operation to stabilize in November.”
Ignore the Dozens Of Warnings From Pilots and Unions: It Was Definitely The Weather
Going back to mid-October and the 2,000 Southwest Airlines flights that were canceled by even NPR, it has been very widely reported that Pilots are extremely concerned regarding the long-term impacts of the COVID19 vaccine and are unwilling to subject themselves to it. Some 4,000 American Airlines pilots are “holding off on it because many are concerned about long term effects” according to Union spokesman Dennis Tajer. So how disingenuous is it, how obviously deceitful is it that two weeks later, with a spate of 1,700-2,200 flights canceled in a 72 hour period, that the American people are being sold this line about “high winds” and “staff shortages” they claim are due to layoffs during the 2020 COVID lockdown?
As recently as October 20th, USA Today reported that “Pilots at American and Southwest airlines are being warned to keep vaccine mandate issues out of the cockpit due to potential flight safety concerns.” after large numbers of pilots self-reported that vaccine mandate conversations and concerns were creating a distraction in the cockpit. How do they possibly expect the American people to believe this?