American Airlines cancels over 300 more flights amid staffing shortages

Nov. 1 (UPI) -- American Airlines canceled over 300 flights Monday amid staffing shortages after disrupting thousands of flights over the weekend.

The airline canceled over 1,000 flights on Sunday, or 36% of its schedule, along with delaying 478 flights, according to flight tracking website, FlightAware.com. The carrier canceled 376 flights, or 13% of its schedule, by 1:30 p.m. on Monday, along with delaying 375 flights.

Since Friday, the airline has canceled more than 2,000 flights.

The Fort Worth, Texas-based airline cited severe winds in Dallas-Fort Worth on Friday and Saturday and staffing issues for the cancellations.

In a memo, American Chief Operating Officer David Seymour said the airline is "proactively canceling" flights to provide "scheduling certainty for our crews," after high winds and bad weather in Dallas-Fort Worth Thursday left crews out of position, CNN Business reported.

The airline added that help was on the way with 1,800 flight attendants returning from time off due to the COVID-19 pandemic starting on Monday.

Tallies from American Airlines obtained by CNBC showed staffing shortages were the reason for most of the cancellations. On Sunday alone, the cancellations affected more than 136,000 customers, according to a company document, obtained by the same network.

American Airlines is among others struggling to keep up with growing demand after cuts were made during the pandemic.

Southwest Airlines canceled thousands of flights over another weekend last month, similarly citing staffing cuts amid the pandemic as exacerbating bad weather disruptions.

Those cancellations cost Southwest $75 million, the carrier showed in its earnings report.

Over the summer, Spirit Airlines canceled hundreds of flights for five days in a row and up to half or more of its schedule some days, similarly citing bad weather and staffing issues.