‘It’s aggravating’: More American flights canceled Monday at Charlotte Douglas

CHARLOTTE — It has been a frustrating past few days for passengers after American Airlines canceled dozens of flights at Charlotte Douglas International Airport and hundreds more across the country.

Nationwide, American Airlines canceled hundreds of flights on Sunday for a third straight day as it struggled with staffing shortages and upended weekend plans for tens of thousands of travelers. Those cancellations bled into Monday.

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On Friday, American canceled 342 flights and 548 flights on Saturday. That accounts for about 17% of its flight schedule.

By late afternoon Sunday, American had canceled more than 900 flights -- one-third of its schedule for the day -- after scrapping nearly 900 flights over the previous two days. A total of 112 departures at Charlotte Douglas were canceled Sunday.

By early Monday, dozens of American flights had already been canceled at Charlotte Douglas. Hundreds of passengers wrapped through the airport on Monday morning, trying to figure out what to do after their flights were canceled.

“It’s stressful, aggravating. I know all these people are aggravated,” passenger Andy Goins said.

At its worst Monday morning, there were 28 flights canceled in Charlotte and 22 more delayed. That made for a terminal that was long on lines and short on patience as thousands of passengers were stranded -- or at least delayed significantly.

Jennifer West was on a plane in Sarasota, Florida on Sunday heading for Charlotte, when she learned her connecting flight to Buffalo was canceled.

“They waited until we were taxiing on the airport before I got the ding on my phone saying it was canceled, and after, you get to know everyone in line because there were hundreds in the same boat and they said the same thing -- when they were taxiing on their flight they got the notice that it was canceled,” she told Channel 9.

West, and hundreds of others, ended up staying overnight in the airport.

A spokeswoman for American said the airline expects considerable improvement starting Monday, although there will be “some residual impact from the weekend.” By Sunday afternoon, American had already canceled more than 100 Monday flights, according to FlightAware.

But things did start looking up by Monday afternoon.

Michael Murray and his wife and brother-in-law had their flight home to New York canceled on Sunday, but they went back to the airport Monday to try again.

By noon, American had begun to untangle the knots created by all of those delays and cancellations. The crowds had thinned and passengers were finally on their way.

The Murrays headed for their new flight with fingers crossed.

A spokesman for American’s Pilots Union told Channel 9 anchor Allison Latos the airline should’ve seen this coming, and been prepared.

“We’re ready to fly and the flight attendants’ union is ready to fly,” said Pilot’s Union Captain Dennis Tajer. “But after a weather event, the company isn’t able to get the system back up and running again.”

‘Emotionally and physically exhausted’

Jennifer West told Channel 9 she’s been staying at a hotel since Sunday night, when American Airlines canceled her connecting flight from Charlotte to Buffalo.

She and her family were visiting relatives in Florida.

“It was canceled as we were on the plane to take off from Sarasota,” she said.

West said the process is delayed even more because of the employee shortage. Several hours in the ticket line, three hours to get their luggage, and two hours for a hotel room to become available, made for a very long travel day. Her family eventually left their bags at the airport -- with her vital medicine inside.

“It was just line after line after line,” she said.

West’s boyfriend is missing work. Her daughter is out of school -- and they have animals to care for at home.

“We’re emotionally and physically exhausted,” West told Channel 9. “American Airlines needs to take care of their customers.”

West said American told her the earliest she could get out of Charlotte was on Tuesday -- but she said she needs to be home now. Ali Mileski, from Fayetteville, is in a similar situation. American already canceled her flight to Buffalo twice for her IVF treatment Monday afternoon, while her husband is deployed in Kuwait.

“If I don’t get there in time today, the whole 3-week cycle -- and it’s about $10,000 out of pocket because the military doesn’t cover it -- will be for nothing,” Mileski said.

The frustration is mounting. At this point, West said she isn’t sure if she’ll fly again, and is even considering driving the 10 hours to get back home.

“I’m done with traveling,” West said. “If we’re gonna travel, we’re going to do it by car.”

(WATCH BELOW: ‘Emotionally and physically exhausted’: More American flights canceled Monday at Charlotte Douglas)

‘Emotionally and physically exhausted’: More American flights canceled Monday at Charlotte Douglas

‘It’s your job to get me there’

Reporter Joe Bruno was at the airport Friday night and spoke to several people who were upset about the cancellations. Between Friday night and Saturday morning, Bruno said at least 18 arrivals and 11 departures were canceled at Charlotte Douglas.

Saturday morning, 14 flights were canceled at Charlotte Douglas at one point.

“Just found out my flight has been canceled. Was supposed to depart at 5:50 and we don’t know if we can get out tonight,” passenger Eric Capron said.

Capron was waiting in a long line and said he and his wife were trying to get to Omaha, Nebraska. Stories like his could be heard throughout the airport Saturday.

“We were waiting to board the aircraft and then they said the flight was canceled,” passenger Kevin McDonald said.

On Sunday, lines of frustrated passengers crowded around the American Airlines counters.

“Refreshing the app, but so is everybody else,” said passenger Sarah Elkins. “It’s just going slow and all the flights are disappearing one by one. We have to get back because my husband is in the Navy and he can’t just be gone.”

American Airlines sent a letter to employees stating that weather was mostly to blame for the cancellations. The airline said it was working to get things back to normal as soon as possible.

American’s troubles began Thursday and Friday, when high winds at times shut down its busiest hub, Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, and prevented the airline from using all runways there. That made it difficult for American to get crews in position for upcoming flights, and caused disruptions. The number of canceled and delayed flights grew larger in number and geographic sweep throughout the weekend.

AA adjusted operations over the last few days by “proactively canceling” some flights to “minimize any convenience as much as possible,” officials said.

“To make sure we are taking care of our customers and providing scheduling certainty for our crews, we have adjusted our operation for the last few days this month by proactively canceling some flights,” David Seymour, the airline’s chief operating officer, said in a note to employees on Saturday.

“I don’t understand why it’s canceled. I’ve heard they don’t have enough staff. Well, you sold me a product, I paid for it. Now, it’s your job to get me there,” passenger Van Johnson said.

About two-thirds of Sunday’s cancellations were due to a lack of flight attendants in the right places, with almost all the remaining cancellations due to a shortage of pilots, according to internal figures seen by The Associated Press.

The nature of the debacle — starting with bad weather in part of the country before spinning out of control — was similar to disruptions at Southwest Airlines in early October. Together, the twin failures raised ominous questions about whether major airlines are prepared for the busy upcoming holiday travel period.

American says it will be.

Seymour said that nearly 1,800 flight attendants will begin returning to their jobs starting Monday and at least 600 new hires will be on board by the end of the year. He said the airline is also hiring pilots and reservations agents in time for the holidays.

American Airlines said most of the passengers impacted this weekend were being rebooked the same day.

“We anticipate getting through this brief irregular ops period quickly with the start of a new month,” the letter read.

“They are starting to rebook flights, but now I won’t leave until Monday, Nov. 1 at 2:48,” Capron said.

Channel 9 contacted American’s flight attendants union and they agree trying to come back from a pandemic is tough and that’s why there will be days like this.

The Association of Flight Attendants told Channel 9 there are no current strikes so the delays were not because of that. Charlotte airport officials told Channel 9 that initial information from AA was some initial delays were due to inclement weather.

Airlines were barred from laying off workers during the pandemic as a condition of billions in federal pandemic relief — American temporarily furloughed 19,000 workers when the money lapsed last year, but reversed the furloughs when aid was restored. That, however, didn’t stop the airlines from persuading thousands of employees to accept cash incentives and quit voluntarily. American, Southwest and others are now hiring employees to replace some of those who left in 2020.

American’s labor unions have warned for months that the airline was scheduling more flights than its pared-down work force can handle, leaving employees spread too thinly when bad weather snarls air travel.

Dennis Tajer, an American Airlines pilot and spokesman for the Allied Pilots Association, said the union had not seen such a high level of cancellations after storms had passed.

“Since the spring we have been warning of these post-weather management failures to recover, and it’s just getting worse,” he said. “We continue to be very concerned about the uncertainty surrounding the upcoming winter holiday travel season.”

American planned about 2,600 flights Sunday, not counting regional affiliates that fly as American Eagle. That number is scheduled to jump to more than 3,000 flights on eight days around Thanksgiving and early December, according to aviation-data firm Cirium.

Earlier in October, Southwest canceled well over 2,000 flights after disruptions started with weather problems in Florida and were compounded by staffing shortages. Southwest’s chief operating officer said the airline was pursuing “a very aggressive hiring plan” but was “still not where we want to be with staffing,” especially pilots.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

(WATCH BELOW: Family stranded after Southwest Airlines cancels flight at Charlotte airport)

Family stranded after Southwest Airlines cancels flight at Charlotte airport

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