American May Remove Voluntary Leaves of Flight Attendants

The recent surge in travel demand is both good and bad news for airlines. For the airline industry, it’s an opportunity to recover their losses from last year. Unfortunately, they now have to deal with labor shortage. American Airlines plans to address this problem by making flight attendants work extra. For this year, there is a chance that flight attendants will have their voluntary leaves canceled.

Approximately 28,000 members of the Association of Professional Flight Attendants received a letter of the possible cancellation that could happen from November to January.

Voluntary leaves were done by the company during the pandemic to reduce the losses as travel demand dropped last year. American Airlines has offered up to a year of voluntary leave for flight attendants. As for pilots, they are given a month to six months.

There are currently 3,200 flight attendants who are on voluntary long-term leave. They will return to work next year. In July 2020, American Airlines and the flight attendants union agreed that the airline will give a notice of at least 60 days if it is reducing or canceling voluntary leaves.

American spokesperson Lindsey Martin said that the airline is “currently evaluating our future staffing needs, and will continue to keep our team, as well as the APFA, updated as we finalize our plans”.

Overwhelmed Staff

Millions of travelers choose to fly as the vaccination rate in the US improves daily. During the 4^th of July weekend, the TSA recorded three times more traffic than in 2020. American Airlines along with their competitors are reportedly hiring to meet the labor shortage and cover for the recent surge in travel demand.

As the airline struggles to keep up with the current travel demand, the company canceled hundreds of flights until mid-July. The company also noted weather problems for the canceled flights. American Airline Spokeswoman said that “We made targeted changes with the goal of impacting the fewest number of customers by adjusting flights in markets where we have multiple options for re-accommodation”.