American Airlines scraps more than 1,000 flights over the Halloween weekend citing staff shortages and bad weather

American Airlines had a hectic Halloween weekend after canceling more than a thousand flights. On Sunday alone, it was reported that it called off 850 flights and cited the lack of staff and bad weather for its decision.

According to Reuters, American Airlines canceled both domestic and international flights on Oct. 31, and with 850 canceled flights that day, it brought the total number of cancellations to around 1,739 since Friday, Oct. 29. The company's spokeswoman confirmed they scrapped 848 flights as of 3:00 p.m. on Sunday, 548 on Saturday, and 343 trips on Friday.

On Saturday, the airline sent a letter to its employees and announced that due to severe winds at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, the arrival capacity has been reduced to more than half. The company further explained the bad weather also means "our staffing begins to run tight as crew members end up out of their regular flight sequences."

American Airlines has been experiencing staff shortages just like the other companies because it was one of the negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. So now that when people are starting to travel again, the remaining staff are not enough to accommodate the growing demand.

Then again, the air carrier also revealed in the same letter that almost 1,800 flight attendants are set to return from leave this week. The newly-hired employees numbering to over 600 will also be coming on board before this year ends.

The returning employees are part of the batch who went on voluntary leave that was offered by the company at the height of the pandemic. It was said that most of its 17,500 employees are now back at work. American Airlines is still aiming to hire at least 5,000 new workers this year.

Meanwhile, with the flight cancellations, CNN Business reported that thousands of passengers who were traveling last weekend have expressed their grievances to the airline via social media. To this, American Airlines said they are doing their best to take care of their customers.

"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," the airline stated.