Pilots Union at Odds with American Airlines Over Holiday Scheduling Mistake

Friday, December 01, 2017 at 12:00 AM ET

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All American Airlines pilots were able to drop flights and take time off during Christmas week, leaving an estimated 15,000 flights without pilots. Pixabay

Key Takeaways:

A computer glitch at American Airlines allowed all pilots to take time off during the critical Christmas holiday season.
The Allied Pilots Association (APA) warns that this error could jeopardize approximately 15,000 flights between December 17 and January 1.
American Airlines is offering 150% pay and deploying reserve pilots to cover the affected flights, stating they expect to avoid cancellations.
However, the APA has filed a grievance, asserting that American Airlines' proposed solution violates existing contracts and cannot guarantee the promised premium pay.

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“Oops.” That’s presumably the PG version of what American Airlines officials are thinking this week after it was revealed that a “computer glitch” gave all of the company’s pilots the ability to take time off during and around Christmas week.

BREAKING: American Airlines says computer glitch allowed all pilots to take vacation over Christmas week. Now union says thousands of flights are in jeopardy of cancellation. Americans says they’re offering 1.5x pay for pilots to fill in and expect to resolve the issue.
— Sam Sweeney (@SweeneyABC) November 29, 2017

The Allied Pilots Association claims that approximately 15,000 flights could be affected between December 17 and January 1; however, American didn’t confirm nor deny that estimate in a statement. Instead, the airline promised to correct the mistake and make sure passengers’ holiday travel plans aren’t ruined.

“We are working diligently to address the issue and expect to avoid cancellations this holiday season,” the statement read. “We will work with the APA to take care of our pilots and ensure we get our customers to where they need to go over the holidays.”

In addition to calling on reserve pilots to cover the affected flights, American is offering pilots 150 percent pay. APA, however, has filed a grievance over this solution because it is in “direct violation” of contracts.

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“Because management unilaterally created their solution in violation of the contract, neither APA nor the contract can guarantee the promised payment of the premium being offered,” the union wrote on its website.

“Here’s hoping the folks running the airline come to us and are willing to sit down and work through it, because we don’t have a solution at this point,” an APA spokesman told the New York Times.