Pilot union says winter weather isn’t only cause of flight cancellations at Charlotte Douglas

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — In the last month, we have seen winter weather cause thousands of flight cancellations at Charlotte Douglas International Airport.

While weather-related cancellations aren’t new, the American Airlines pilots union said weather isn’t the only reason for grounded flights.

Channel 9′s Glenn Counts explains why.

There were 152 cancellations at Charlotte Douglas, according to tracking service FlightAware.

The vast majority of those were from American Airlines, with 82 cancellations.

“Well it’s clear they failed to plan correctly. It’s just the reality we don’t like saying it, but it’s the truth,” Captain Dennis Tajer.

Captain Dennis is with Allied Pilots, the union that represents American Airlines pilots.

The union said that American has a poor record when it comes to bouncing back from weather events.

They claim that after weather, it takes American four or five days to return to schedule, compared to two to three days for competitors.

“Where it may take Delta, United a day or a day and a quarter, it will take American 3, 4 days. We’ve seen this. And when we look at the reason why they canceled those days after the storm we see the codes. It’s because they were failing to connect the pilot to the airplane,” Tajer said.

The union said the company has not been able to schedule crews correctly and is fighting for change.

“That upsets us, but you know what? We’re going to get this done, but it’s going to be a fight. We’d rather fight against our competitors than with management, but if you don’t think our pilots are ready to fly and get the job done, you haven’t visited the flight deck lately,” Tajer said.

Tajer said the problem started over the summer and has continued.

American Airlines, however, takes issue with that assessment.

In a letter sent to employees, Chief Operating Officer David Seymour said American canceled less than half the flights than its top three competitors while operating 35% more flights per day.

Seymour also said that through the holiday season the airline flew 9.7 million passengers on 96,000 flights.

Passenger Tabatha Brantley isn’t sure what to make of this debate. She said she wasn’t too happy that her son’s flight out California was delayed.

“I think it’s probably a bit of both. I think it’s hard to predict the weather for sure but I also think they could maybe do a little better at getting the flights on time,” Brantley said.

Sources said American has been locked into contract negotiations with its pilots for months and that these complaints are nothing more than union posturing.

Major airlines are working to fix disruptions spurred by COVID-19 and winter weather.

American Airlines said it wants to add 2,000 pilots this year.

Delta said it plans to hire as many as 200 a month, while United airlines said their goal is to train 500 pilots annually.

(WATCH BELOW: Nearly 200 Charlotte Douglas flights canceled Saturday due to winter weather)

Nearly 200 Charlotte Douglas flights canceled Saturday due to winter weather

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