American Airlines cancels 9% of its flights nationwide, 28 at LAX

Travel nightmare for American Airlines passengers

Seven American Airlines flights that were supposed to arrive at Los Angeles International Airport were canceled Monday morning. Another two American Airlines flights scheduled to depart LAX were canceled and four flights scheduled to depart were delayed Monday morning.

LOS ANGELES - Seven American Airlines flights that were supposed to arrive at Los Angeles International Airport were canceled Monday morning. Another two American Airlines flights scheduled to depart LAX were canceled and four flights scheduled to depart were delayed Monday morning.

There were more than 1,500 American Airlines flights this weekend -- about 9% of the airline's total -- that were canceled or delayed due to weather and staffing issues, officials said. Some of the cancellations affected Southland airports.

The flights that were canceled arriving to LAX Monday morning were from Austin, Texas; Honolulu, Hawaii; Houston, Texas; Phoenix, Arizona; Dallas-Fort Worth in Texas; Denver, Colorado; and El Paso, Texas. The two American Airlines flights that were scheduled to depart from LAX and canceled were bound or Seoul, South Korea and Philadelphia.

LAX saw 28 canceled American Airlines flights Sunday, Los Angeles World Airports' Frederick Badlissi told City News Service. He added that 180 other flights at LAX would be on time.

Hollywood Burbank Airport had one delayed American Airlines flight to Phoenix delayed Monday morning and had one canceled flight Sunday.

Long Beach Airport did not list any canceled American flights. There were three scheduled flights departing from Long Beach Airport on Sunday and none of the flights were canceled.

"This week saw two days of severe winds in DFW (Dallas Fort-Worth), with gusts of up to 50 mph on Thursday, creating crosswind limitations that sharply reduced arrival capacity by more than half," David Seymour, American's chief operating officer, wrote in a letter to team members on Saturday.

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"This weather drove a large number of cancellations at DFW, as we could only use two runways instead of the usual five that handle our operation. With additional weather throughout the system, our staffing begins to run tight as crew members end up out of their regular flight sequences. To make sure we are taking care of our customers and providing scheduling certainty for our crews, we have adjusted our operation for the last few days this month by proactively canceling some flights.

"We are taking this measure to minimize any inconvenience as much as possible. Most of the customers impacted by these changes are being rebooked the same day, and we apologize for having to make these changes.

"... The good news moving forward is that we continue to staff up across our entire operation and we will see more of our team returning in the coming months," the letter continued. "Specifically, for flight attendants, we have nearly 1,800 returning from leave starting Nov. 1 -- and the remainder coming back by Dec. 1 -- and will have 600+ new hire, flight attendants, on property by end of December. Additionally, hiring for our airports is well underway and we anticipate 4,000 new team members joining us across the system in the fourth quarter."

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