In the United States, the air travel is strong. Too strong even perhaps for the American companies which are struggling to keep pace after months of standby.
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American airlines, surprised by airports teeming with new activity in the United States, are busy to avoid a chaotic summer. To better cope with unforeseen events, American Airlines wants to find room for maneuver, has already canceled 400 flights last weekend, and plans to unschedule around 950 in the first half of July.
If the company blamed the bad weather which, since the beginning of June, has disrupted flight plans, it also recognizes that some subcontractors are short of manpower. And faced with an “incredibly fast” acceleration in demand, it has therefore decided to withdraw certain flights “to mitigate (bad) surprises at airports” and reduce the risk of unhappy passengers.
Reforming pilots in the United States
Like other companies, American must also scrutinize its planes to ensure the safety of its flights while some aircraft have remained immobilized in hangars or on the tarmac for several months. “There is a lot of maintenance” to be done, emphasizes Ian Gendler of the research firm Value Line. And “it does not happen overnight”.
American, which claims to have taken good care of its devices, also recruits “actively” in all sectors, from reservations to customer services through maintenance, explains a spokesperson. All temporarily inactive pilots should have completed their training at the end of June, she said. Delta plans for its part to recruit more than 1,000 pilots in the United States by next summer to deal with the resumption of traffic and the addition of destinations, according to an internal memo.
Not enough workforce after layoffs
But accelerated recruitments may not be enough, said Gary Peterson, representing aviation workers in the TWU union, from flight attendants to baggage handlers and mechanics. Because for the employees newly arrived at the airports, it is necessary to take the fingerprints, to make check – security obliges – the antecedents by government agents, themselves often understaffed and slowed down by the health precautions.
The companies, which had multiplied the plans for early retirement or voluntary departures during the pandemic, “put the planes back into service without necessarily having the manpower to operate them,” laments Gary Peterson, himself a mechanic at American Airlines. Most travelers should get there eventually and the situation will gradually improve, he says.
As before the pandemic
However, the companies “will be faced with problems all summer” if they do not limit flights, warns the union representative. The number of people passing through an American airport, which is still 25% below its 2019 level, has nevertheless regularly exceeded 2 million visitors since June 11, according to figures from the airport authorities.
The companies have opened many routes to adapt to a clientele more oriented towards tourism than business travel. So that “at this moment, we do not really see the difference with the summers” before the pandemic, assures Chris Riggins, member of the Delta pilots’ union.
Even if his company plans to hire, it will take time to upgrade the training of thousands of pilots, from a few days to five weeks if they are assigned to a new type of aircraft, he explains. As in catering or sales, airports could also be faced, he notes, with a labor shortage among the lowest paid: those responsible for preparing the meal trays, who maintain the premises or work in fast food.
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