Update: American has reached out to let me know that this is an old posting from earlier in the month that was reposted after the Thanksgiving holiday, and that it’s unrelated to the pilot scheduling issue. Talk about unfortunate timing!
Yesterday I posted about how a computer glitch at American caused 15,000 flights over the holidays to be scheduled without pilots. This impacted flights between December 17 and 31, 2017, where apparently pilots were able to “trade” off holiday trips, even without having found replacements (understandably most pilots don’t want to work over the holidays if they can avoid it). American’s solution was to offer 50% overtime pay to any pilots who pick up a trip over the impacted period, which the union wasn’t happy about, since they weren’t consulted about it. Not surprisingly, this got a ton of media attention.
This morning American put out the following press release about this situation, in an attempt to put passengers with flights scheduled over the coming weeks at ease:
Out of the 200,000 flights American will operate in December, only a few hundred are currently unassigned to pilots. That number of open flights continues to decrease thanks to our pilots who are stepping up to the plate and picking up trips to ensure customers are taken care of. It’s another example of why we are thankful to have such an incredible team. In addition, we have more reserve pilots on hand in December than normal months and they provide us with the ability to fly many of the trips that are currently uncovered. We have not canceled any scheduled flights in December and will continue to work to ensure both our pilots and our customers are cared for.
It has been just over 24 hours since all of this came to light. Well, overnight a new job became available at American — American is looking for a new director of crew scheduling. When I first was pointed to this on LinkedIn I assumed it was a joke, though it’s even on American’s careers page.
Ouch. So in case you’re wondering how much an employee is held responsible when there’s a glitch, now we know…
And in related news, under jobs wanted, "experienced airline scheduling director seeks new position."
@Mikey LOL take a chill pill, dude. no need to insult Lucky.
it’s a coincidence that the job was posted the same day the meltdown occurred. There was a change announced internally prior to yesterday’s problem. This is clickbait.
The job posting was there before the first article hit the news.
Anyone who's experienced a corporate HR department might find the move to terminate someone that quickly surprising. The immediate posting of an open position is simply not believable.
(Also, title inflation means that a *Director* is likely rather mid-level. The head of Crew Scheduling surely has a VP title, at least.)
@Jamal, You're talking about acres of fabric to cover Doug Parker's big arse...
I think it is likely a coincidence, but it is still a good story.
I came here to ask how they went from 15,000 flights yesterday to "a few hundred today," but Neil S. beat me to the question. And if it's only a few hundred, that's not making me feel warm inside.
"We'll never lose money again." - Doug
When you put a statement out like that, you gotta cover your butt and make moves.
You really are an idiot! Just because this position is open doesn’t mean shit! This is Crew scheduling! There many different types of Crew scheduling. Pilots, fas. At a lot of airlines Crew scheduling handles the scheduling of day to day operations. Crew planning is responsible for building the schedules. Once again, click bait!
@ Mikey -- American makes their most public mistake ever involving crew scheduling, and within a day they're looking for a new director of crew scheduling? You think that's a coincidence?
What? You mess up once by not assigning pilots to a few thousand flights over the holidays and they sack you? Tsk, tsk, tsk. Now if only AA employed of those high standards for their snarky flight attendants.
Union smells money... will milk it
Do we really believe it went from 15,000 unassigned to a few hundred overnight? #spin
They should fire Dougie next. He's the one who decided not to invest some of their obscene profits in a functioning IT system for pilot scheduling.