American Airlines’ Boeing 777-300ER took off from Sydney Airport in Sydney, Australia, on October 28, 2020.
Lauren Elliott Reuters
New Airlines CEO Robert Izom is looking for one thing this summer: reliability.
The airline is growing faster than its big competitors last year, and passengers sometimes face widespread disruptions as a result of routine challenges such as weather and staff shortages. Other carriers, such as Southwest Airlines and Spirit Airlines, faced similar problems, forcing them to cut schedules.
Now Isom, which took the helm of America’s largest carrier on March 31, said its priority is to ensure that passengers can rely on American this summer and beyond.
“People really need to feel like they have control over their routes, and we give them control by making sure they get to where they want to go on time. I just can’t be more honest about it, “Isom told the pilots during a company meeting last week, which was reviewed by CNBC. “Other airlines are really struggling.”
America’s partner in the northeastern United States, JetBlue Airways, for example, told staff earlier this month that it would cut up to 10 percent of summer flights to avoid a repeat of mass cancellations and delays, CNBC reported. US West Coast code-sharing partner Alaska Airlines has announced a 2% reduction in capacity this spring due to a shortage of pilots.
Free time leads to recovery
Air travel has increased and passengers have shown they are willing to pay for tickets after two years of a pandemic, a trend that is helping carriers cover the jump in fuel costs. The Transport Security Administration on Friday checked more than 2.3 million people, about 10% less than in 2019, but 57% more than a year ago.
Izom said local leisure travelers are compensating for the relatively lower demand for business and international travel.
March seems to be the best month for America in its history, he said. This echoed the comments of Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian when the airline announced the results last week. American must report first-quarter results and provide forecasts for the second quarter before the market opens on Thursday.
American capacity for the first quarter decreased by nearly 11% compared to the same period in 2019, according to documentation last week. Delta, for its part, plans to fly with 84% of its capacity for 2019 in the current quarter, compared to 83% in the first quarter.
“The priority is to work reliably,” Delta President Glenn Hauenstein said during a conversation about profits. “If these trends in demand continue, we have the opportunity to take another tick or we could turn in another direction, if justified.”
U.S. carriers have rushed to hire staff to help resume travel. Congress’ $ 54 billion in federal pay-as-you-go airlines have banned layoffs, but carriers have called on thousands to buy and extend vacations.
Airlines face a shortage of pilots, especially for smaller regional carriers, which are powered by their hubs, forcing them to cancel flights or limit growth. Pilots from Delta, America and the Southwest have been picketing or complaining about fatigue from grueling schedules in recent months.
Izom said American has the right staff of pilots, flight attendant mechanics and customer service agents to handle summer travel.
“We’ve brought the schedule to a level that meets the resources we have,” Isom told the crews.
Other growth challenges include receiving aircraft from manufacturers, including Boeing, whose 787 Dreamliner deliveries have been suspended for most of the past year and a half due to manufacturing shortcomings. An American said Boeing’s problems have forced it to reduce some international long-haul flights.
Minimize interruptions
The airline is also working on ways to avoid cascading delays, which have been so costly for the airline and passengers.
American is investing heavily in training and its integrated operations center, a command center at Fort Worth, Texas, to help avoid delays.
One solution when bad weather occurs, which is common in its main center, as well as in major airports serving Miami and Charlotte, North Carolina, is to work with air traffic control to establish delay programs. land to help avoid repeal later, Steve Olson, head of the IOC said at City Hall.
Olson said accountability is key, and not just measuring how quickly an airline recovers from disruptions, but also determining what impact it has on airline crews who have complained about long delays in planning and hotel services. Stewardesses or pilots who are out of place during bad weather have led to cancellations and delays.
Add Comment