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Airline Glitch Could Leave Thousands of Holiday Flights Stranded Without Pilots

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More than 15,000 scheduled American Airlines flights in December are currently without sufficient crew due to a computer glitch that gave too many pilots time off during the holiday season.

Dennis Tajer, a spokesman for the Allied Pilots Association said the glitch affected flights scheduled from Dec. 17 to Dec. 31.

The scheduling snafu is currently affecting flights from some of American Airlines largest hubs, including airports in New York, Miami, Dallas, Boston, Philadelphia, Salt Lake City and Charlotte, North Carolina, according to a company memo obtained by Bloomberg and CNBC.

Tajer said the airline’s scheduling software went haywire.

“The airline is a 24/7 op,” he said. “The system went from responsibly scheduling everybody to becoming Santa Claus to everyone.”

“The computer said, ‘Hey ya’ll. You want the days off? You got it.’”

American Airlines spokesman Matt Miller said the airline is working to ensure no flights are canceled during the holiday rush, saying its pilots are being offered 150 percent of their hourly rate to fill open trips.

“We have reserve pilots to help cover flying in December, and we are paying pilots who pick up certain open trips 150 percent of their hourly rate — as much as we are allowed to pay them per the contract,” Miller said.

“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.”

However, the APA, which represents 15,000 American pilots, filed a grievance against the airline.

The union said the proposed solution of offering pilots time-and-a-half violates its labor pact.

“This is certainly not routine,” Tajer said. “This is a crisis right now, and in that crisis, they’ve gone solo.”

American Airlines isn’t the first airline to mismanage the scheduling for its pilots.

Budget airline Ryanair was forced to cancel 2,000 European flights in September after too many of its pilots took their annual leave.

It’s unclear at the moment how American Airline’s bottom line will be affected by the unexpected increase in labor costs over the holiday.

Shares of American Airlines dropped 1 percent in late afternoon trade after news broke of the potential holiday flight cancellations. (For more from the author of “Airlines Glitch Could Leave Thousands of Holiday Flights Stranded Without Pilots” please click HERE)

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US Prepares to Ban Something You’d Never Expect on Flights to Europe

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The U.S. is expected to broaden its ban on in-flight laptops and tablets to include planes from the European Union, a move that would create logistical chaos on the world’s busiest corridor of air travel.

Alarmed at the proposal, which airline officials say is merely a matter of timing, European governments held urgent talks on Friday with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

The ban would affect trans-Atlantic routes that carry as many as 65 million people a year on over 400 daily flights, many of them business travelers who rely on their electronics to work during the flight. (Read more from “US Prepares to Ban Something You’d Never Expect on Flights to Europe” HERE)

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You’ll Never Guess How Much Money Delta Is Willing to Offer Flyers Who Give up Seats

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Delta is letting employees offer customers nearly $10,000 in compensation to give up seats on overbooked flights, hoping to avoid an uproar like the one that erupted at United after a passenger was dragged off a jet.

United is taking steps too. It will require employees seeking a seat on a plane to book it at least an hour before departure, a policy that might have prevented last Sunday’s confrontation.

Those and other changes show airlines are scrambling to respond to a public-relations nightmare — the video showing airport officers violently yanking and dragging 69-year-old David Dao from his seat on a sold-out United Express flight. (Read more from “You’ll Never Guess How Much Money Delta Is Willing to Offer Flyers Who Give up Seats” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.