Thousands of December flights on American Airlines do not yet have pilots to fly them because a scheduling error gave time off to too many cockpit crew members during the holiday rush, according to a report.
The Allied Pilots Association, the union representing the carrier’s aviators, informed its members about the glitch, Bloomberg News reported.
American Airlines spokesman Matt Miller declined to disclose the possible number of flights affected, saying the airline expects to correct the problem.
“We are working diligently to address the issue and expect to avoid cancellations this holiday season,” Miller told The Post. “We have reserve pilots to help cover flying in December.”
He added that the airline also is offering pilots 150 percent of their hourly pay to pick up some of the flights, the maximum allowed in their contract.
“We will work with the APA to take care of our pilots and ensure we get our customers to where they need to go over the holidays,” he said.
But the APA has filed a grievance, saying the proposed solution violates its labor pact, according to Bloomberg.
APA spokesman Dennis Tajer said the union wants to discuss another solution with the airline that will motivate pilots to give up vacation time they’ve been granted for working over the holidays.
“This is certainly not routine,” Tajer said. “This is a crisis right now, and in that crisis, they’ve gone solo.”
The snafu caused the scheduling system to show that American had enough staffing coverage for some planned flights when it actually didn’t, Miller said.
Flights that are scheduled without a captain, first officer or both originate from Dallas-Fort Worth, Boston, Miami, New York City, Philadelphia, Salt Lake City and Charlotte, NC, according to a company memo to the APA that was seen by Bloomberg.