Incompetent Diversity-Hire Gay Mayor Pete Can't Do a Thing About Another Weekend of a Thousand-Plus Flight Cancellations, Nor the Ongoing Pilot Shortage

The important thing is that all those cancelled flights mean that less jet fuel was burned and less CO2 -- The Invisible Killer -- was released into the atmosphere.

Flight attendant union rep says US air travel is suffering a 'breakdown' and the 'job is not sustainable' for overstretched staff - as American travelers are hit by another weekend of travel chaos with more than 1,000 cancelations

More than 1,000 flights within, into or out of the United States were canceled or delayed over the weekend as America's summer of travel chaos continued

As many as 912 flights were canceled as of 8 p.m. Sunday and thousands delayed
US flight attendant Allie Malis, who is also a government affairs representative, says the unpredictable schedules caused by cancellations and delays is tough

This weekend's mayhem comes as Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has proposed expanding the circumstances in which travelers can claim refunds

Oh, he can't do anything to address the problem, but he can go beyond his actual powers to compel private businesses to issue refunds. So he can play Tyrant to impose a Band-Aid solution, huh?

US air travel is suffering a 'breakdown' and the 'job is not sustainable' for overstretched staff, a flight attendant union rep warns as American travelers are hit by another weekend of travel chaos with more than 1,000 cancelations.

America's airport nightmares continued on Friday as thunderstorms on the East Coast halted thousands of planes.

According to FlightAware, which tracks the status of flights around the world, 1,142 flights within, into or out of the United States were called off on Friday, while 3,944 flights were delayed.

Cancellations due to storms are to be expected -- but this keeps happening.

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US flight attendant Allie Malis, who is also the government affairs representative at the Association of Professional Flight Attendants, a union representing American Airlines air crew, told CNN Travel her thoughts on the chaos.

'There's some kind of breakdown happening that I believe should be preventable,' Malis said.

She described 'uncomfortable' situations where crew members, having been delayed on incoming flights, would find themselves sprinting through the airport to make their next flight.

'Sometimes the passengers are cheering that you're arriving because it means their plane's going to go, or even that they're upset -- they think it's your fault that the flight has been delayed when you can't work two flights at once, although I'm sure the airlines wish we could,' Malis said.

Many airlines cut back and have operated with a skeleton staff for the better part of the last two years due to the pandemic. But now that travel demand is back, the airline industry is struggling to keep up.

Let's talk about that.

Karol Markowicz made a very good point in June: The airlines received $50 billion during the pandemic to keep paying their staffs, even though there was little air travel.

The airlines took this money... and then promptly began shedding staff.

If you've flown recently, or attempted to, it might have gone something like this: Your 1 p.m. flight became a 5 p.m. flight that became a midnight flight before being summarily canceled. No explanation is given. The next flights out are already fully booked, but they have a middle seat with two stopovers leaving next week if that still works for you.

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According to FlightAware, a website that tracks flight cancellations and delays, there were 1,629 delays and 631 cancellations "within, into, or out of the United States" just Sunday. This was only by noon. Cancellations and delays become more likely as the day progresses.

Why are these frequent delays happening? Airlines cite post-pandemic demand being high. That's probably true, but people are excitedly booking seats on flights that allegedly exist only to have them not exist when it's time to travel. That's not the fault of demand.

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Then there's the pilot shortage. Why would there be a pilot shortage, the average flyer screams into the void. In one of the dumbest moves possible, pilots were encouraged to retire early to avoid being laid off during the pandemic.

But here is exactly where the poor performance of airlines becomes a bigger deal than just a business failing to deliver quality service to the customer. Throughout the last two years, airlines received more than $50 billion in pandemic relief money. Our money. Congress has tried to demand answers about how that money was spent, but just like all of their other boondoggles, they could not come up with any clear answers.

That money was meant to preserve jobs and save an industry. Pilots, pretty important to the whole flying thing, should never have been encouraged off the job. Instead, the industry is in disarray, staff were laid off anyway and the money is gone.

She also points out that pilots who refused to get vaccinated were fired.

Now, I know people who got PPP loans. Those loans have to be paid back... unless you followed the government's criteria, in which case the loans are forgiven.

The biggest criterion of PPP loan forgiveness was that you keep on your full staff and continue paying them. Basically PPP was given to businesses to keep paying staff.

If the airlines encouraged pilots to retire early to avoid being laid off, then they did not follow PPP rules, and should pay that $50 billion back.

I'm pretty sure, though, that airlines got a special stack of cash without the normal rules that every other non-Protected business was required to follow.

posted by Ace at 02:24 PM

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