Well, that took no time at all.
On Wednesday, we learned that American Airlines has a major problem on its hands. Due to a glitch in the system pilots use to request time off, thousands of holiday flights are at risk of being cancelled. The airline accidentally gave too many pilots time off, and American Airlines is trying to fix the issue by offering pilots overtime wages for picking up shifts.
Unfortunately, no glitch goes unpunished. American Airlines is already looking for a new Director of Crew Scheduling. Oof. In the job listing, the person in this role would aim to provide “the best possible service to [American Airline’s] crewmembers while delivering a reliable and efficient operation.” Giving so many pilots PTO that it results in the potential cancellation of 15,000 flights is definitely lacking in both the reliability and efficiency aspects there.
The person in this role will also be tasked with implementing an improved “quality assurance performance management system,” which we take to mean: figure out a way to make sure the 2017 holiday snafu never, ever repeats itself.
Hopefully American will be able to get its current scheduling issues sorted, mostly for the sake of holiday travelers. (In a statement, American Airlines said only a few hundred remain unassigned to pilots as of Thursday.) As for the new crew scheduling director, hopefully they’ll keep a better eye on the airlines” scheduling systems to ensure something like this doesn’t happen again.
