HARLINGEN — Despite canceling hundreds of flights, American Airlines passengers at Valley International Airport are not being affected by the slowdown, officials at the airport say.
The cutbacks on flights come as air travel demand is exploding after more than a year of pandemic-related shutdowns which impacted airlines and airports dramatically.
These days, American typically flies around four flights per day between Harlingen and Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.
“Our American Airlines flights are operated by their feeder, Envoy Air,” Jose Mulet, director of air service and business development at VIA, said in an email Wednesday. “Most of those cancellations are concentrated at their hubs and focus cities with major mainline operations.”
American’s problems come as more people are flying right now than they have for more than a year. Airport security checkpoints nationwide passed through more than 2 million travelers both Sunday and Monday, with Sunday marking the highest one-day number in 15 months.
“A route like the DFW/DAL, IAH/HOU to Orlando, with a demand during the pandemic of probably three to five flights a day, overnight now has a demand calling for six to eight a day,” Mulet wrote.
“So imagine the pressure to increase seat demands on a short notice,” Mulet added. “It is much easier to ‘turn off the switch’ on routes when the demand dies, but it is extremely difficult for the airlines to ‘turn on the switch’ at short notice when the demand comes back so quickly.”
A spokesman for the Allied Pilots Association, the union which represents American’s 15,000 pilots, said Monday the reason for the flight cancellations is not enough pilots are available.
Given major layoffs that occurred among American pilots as air travel demand cratered during the pandemic, union leaders say each of these pilots must undergo re-training before they’re allowed back in the cockpit, and that American’s training operation can’t cope with the demand.
American officials, however, deny furloughs as having anything to do with the flight cancellations, saying pilot re-training is on track and that all pilots recalled from furloughs will finish by the end of June.
Instead, they cited “unprecedented weather” at American hubs in Dallas-Fort Worth and Charlotte which forced the cancellations by causing many crew members to hit Federal Aviation Administration limits on work hours.
