American Airlines details plan to improve holiday travel amid cancelled flights at CLT

Tuesday, November 9, 2021

After cancelling dozens of flights out of Charlotte Douglas International Airport in recent weeks, American Airlines said it has a plan to make holiday travel more reliable.


The airline, the dominant air carrier at the Charlotte airport, announced Friday that flight attendants who work critical periods including Nov. 23 through Nov. 29 and Dec. 22 through Jan. 2 will be paid 150% of their normal pay for many routes.
And if flight attendants have no absences between Nov. 15 and Jan. 2, the airline will triple their pay instead.


As we look ahead to the final 60 or so days of this year and into 2022, it’s more important than ever, we take steps to ensure we can safely and reliable serve our customers, American Airlines Executive Brady Byrnes told flight attendants in a note detailing the holiday pay on Friday.

The past few months, and particularly the past week, have been challenging. As of Monday morning, three American Airlines flights out of CLT out of 618 scheduled departures had been canceled.

In recent days, the airline had canceled dozens of flights at a time out of Charlotte, the airline’s second-largest hub.

One of the largest days of cancellations at the Charlotte Airport was Oct. 31, with 100 departing flights cancelled.

Across the airline, more than 1,000 flights were canceled that day. The airline operates the majority of flights out of CLT, which has ranked in the top five busiest airports in the world in number of flights for much of the year, according to flight statistics website Information Design.

American Airline is also bringing more employees on board during the busy holiday travel season, American Airlines Chief Operations Officer David Seymour told employees in an email Friday.

More than 1,800 flight attendants returned from leaves in November and 800 more will return in December, Seymour said.



And American plans to hire more than 600 flight attendants by the end of December, he added. American also plans to hire 4,000 new employees in the airline’s fourth quarter.

« Back to Page

• Run Into The Night: China Airlines Starlight Road Race Marathon to Illuminate Taipei Streets with Music, Markets, and Midnight Magic on October 12

• Hong Kong International Airport Records Impressive Surge if Over 50% in Passenger and Cargo Traffic for March 2024

• WestJet CEO Alexis Von Hoensbroech to Unveil Strategic Regional Investments in Exclusive Address to Edmonton Business Community

• Emirates Strengthens Commercial Operations with Strategic Role Changes

• Latin American and Caribbean Airlines Highlight 2.7% Annual Fuel Efficiency Gain during Earth Day Celebrations