American Airlines has been forced to cancel more than 800 flights scheduled for Sunday, bringing the total canceled since Friday to 1,600, as lingering effects of bad weather in Texas has impacted its ability to staff flights, the Associated Press reports.
The Dallas-Fort Worth airport, a key hub in American’s operations, had limited operations starting late last week due to high winds. This required shutting down runways at DFW, resulting in fewer planes being able to land and take off. That subsequently led to planes and crews being stranded at various airports.
“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,” David Seymour, the airline’s chief operating officer, said in a note to employees on Saturday.
Earlier this month, Southwest Airlines had to cancel more than 2,000 flights due to weather, flight crew limitations, and problems at a Florida air traffic control center. While anti-vaccine advocates have claimed the cancellations resulted from informal sick-outs protesting the airlines vaccine mandate, the airline, the pilots’ union and the FAA have all said that does not reflect reality.