By Rajesh Kumar Singh
CHICAGO, Jan 28 (Reuters) - The winter storm that swept the U.S. last weekend did more than ground thousands of American Airlines flights. It strained the carrier's recovery system — from finding crews hotel rooms to rebuilding schedules after days of cancellations.
American, which marks its centennial this year, said the storm has caused more than 9,000 cancellations, the largest weather-related disruption in its history. The carrier's preliminary estimate is that the fallout
will cut first-quarter revenue by $150 million to $200 million and slightly trim planned flying capacity.
CEO Robert Isom said American was hit harder than some rivals because the storm struck the heart of its system. Ice lingered around the Dallas-Fort Worth area, the airline's biggest hub, where nearly one-third of American's employees live, making it difficult for workers to reach the airport.
Isom said the storm hit five of the airline's nine largest operating locations at the same time as it moved up the East Coast. As of 10:45 a.m. ET on Wednesday, American had canceled 459 flights, about 15% of its scheduled departures for the day, according to flight-tracking site FlightAware. Delta canceled 12 flights and United canceled 10.
Interviews with union officials and internal crew messages reviewed by Reuters show the biggest strain followed the storm, as crews struggled to reach the teams that reassign them and arrange hotels and transportation, in some cases not finding places to sleep. American activated an extra-pay provision to persuade crews to pick up unassigned trips, underscoring its tight staffing.
CREWS STUCK, HOTEL ROOMS SCARCE
Big storms routinely scatter crews and strain hotel capacity across the industry, but unions said the storm exposed how hard it was for American to reconnect crews to flights as cancellations piled up.
Julie Hedrick, president of the Association of Professional Flight Attendants, told Reuters some crews spent a night in airport terminals. She said flight attendants waited six to 11 hours to reach the departments responsible for fixing schedules and arranging hotels and rides.
The union said crews waited hours for corrected assignments after cancellations, followed by further delays for hotel rooms and transportation. In some cases, it said, flight attendants received no hotel assignment at all.
"It feels like this has probably been the worst we've dealt with, in terms of recovering," Hedrick said.
The Allied Pilots Association, which represents American's pilots, struck a similar note. In a memo to members late Tuesday seen by Reuters, its president Nick Silva said many pilots were reading his note from airport terminals, layover hotels or while flying as passengers to other cities so they could operate flights.
He accused management of an insufficient response and said the union planned to file grievances, including complaints over hotel quality during the disruption.
American did not directly address the unions' claims. In response to Reuters' questions, the airline shared an employee note from Chief Operating Officer David Seymour and an operational recovery update.
In the employee note late Tuesday, Seymour said teams were repositioning aircraft and freeing up gates at Dallas-Fort Worth to keep flights moving. In the recovery update, American said by mid-afternoon, it had already handled more departures and arrivals at the airport than it did the day before, and extended travel waivers through Thursday.
"The worst of this storm's impacts is behind us," Seymour wrote.
EXTRA PAY TO SPEED RECOVERY
Internal messages to pilots seen by Reuters show American has been offering extra incentive pay to staff trips as it rebuilds its schedule, a move aimed at persuading pilots to pick up unassigned flights.
In messages dated Tuesday and Wednesday, an operations executive told pilots the airline activated a special pay rule that adds the equivalent of five hours and 15 minutes of extra pay on certain days, on top of regular pay.
A pilot familiar with the program said the incentive was being applied widely and described it as the first time he could recall the provision being used — a sign of how difficult the recovery has been.
The turmoil comes amid mounting frustration among employees over American's financial performance, which has lagged Delta Air Lines and United Airlines, and over the size of recent profit-sharing payouts. Some flight attendants complained their profit-sharing payments were modest because American’s profit lagged rivals' earnings last year, which Hedrick said added to an already tense week.
"Today was not a good day for that to come out," she said on Tuesday, adding that the timing deepened frustration as crews faced long waits for help and uncertainty over where they would sleep.
In his note, Silva said many American pilots have seen a "six-figure" pay gap compared with peers at Delta and United over the past three years. He accused management of recycling the same explanations for American's lagging financial and operational performance.
American Chief Financial Officer Devon May told Reuters the airline expected cancellations to ease on Wednesday as temperatures rise in the Dallas-Fort Worth region, with operations close to normal by Thursday.
Hedrick said it was too soon to be confident, noting that while the storm peaked over the weekend, the harder phase has been getting crews rested, housed and back in position to fly.
(Reporting by Rajesh Kumar SinghEditing by Rod Nickel)
