American is not saying how many flights are affected, but the pilots’ union says that about 15,000 flights were scheduled without a captain, a co-pilot or both. American, the world’s biggest airline, has about 15,000 active pilots and expects to operate more than 200,000 flights in December. The scheduling glitch let pilots drop scheduled flights – to take a vacation over Christmas, for example – even when there were no other pilots available for that flight. The pilots’ union estimated that when the problem was discovered late last week, about 19,000 cockpit seats were left empty. American officials “expect to avoid cancellations this holiday season,” said airline spokesman Matt Miller.

Source: The Guardian November 30, 2017 15:45 UTC