American says this can be you after all, this holiday season.
Getty ImagesTalk about a sigh of relief.
American Airlines said Friday it has solved a scheduling snafu that allowed too many pilots to take off work during the December holiday season. Typically, holidays are doled out based on seniority.
“In short, if Santa is flying, so is American,” the airline said in a statement.
The trouble started last week when American, one of the world’s largest airlines, realized the scheduling glitch potentially left thousands of flights without a pilot during what will be a busy travel season. More than 30 million people are expected to take to the skies in the next month.
The Allied Pilots Association, which represents the airline’s pilots, initially balked at the company’s efforts to mitigate the problem, including using backup staff and offering pilots 150 percent of their hourly wages to work.
American spent the past week giving updates about ongoing successes filling flights, and on Thursday it said most flights had already been staffed.
Now it appears the issue has been fully resolved. We can go back to worrying how fast the TSA lines will go.
