With days to go until the long Fourth of July weekend and its expected travel crunch, airlines are experiencing massive delays and outright cancellations of flights. Data from FlightAware, which tracks flights globally, shows more than 2,000 flights departing and arriving in the U.S. delayed, with at least 764 other flights outright canceled on Wednesday alone.
Some passengers have been stranded for days while staff is stretched so thin that workers are sleeping on cots at airports.
Association of Flight Attendants President Sara Nelson shared a photo of the chaos for United Airlines crew, many of whom are unable to be reassigned, putting their work in limbo.
Nelson’s call to action for United stems from an agreement between the airline and the flight attendants union that would allow workers to be paid at a higher tier than normal in order to accommodate the current crunch. The AFA noted that some weather issues made it harder to work through ever-changing flight plans but that doesn’t excuse the fact that “United management has the contractual ability, at their discretion, to incentivize Flight Attendant[s] through the use of White & Purple flag pay.”
What that means, according to the AFA’s United Master Executive Council, is that flight attendants have the opportunity to choose assignments that could see their pay boosted by up to 300% from now until July 6th.
The way United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby has approached airline issues, at least publicly, has been by passing the buck instead of paying its workers. CNBC reports that Kirby put the blame on the weather and the Federal Aviation Administration. “The FAA frankly failed us,” Kirby told staffers, adding that crews were already behind schedule prior to bad weather, which “was further compounded by FAA staffing shortages Sunday evening.”
Air travel woes likely would not get to this point were it not for the lingering effects of the ongoing pandemic and the decisions made by those at the top of the…
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