Alaska Airlines flight cancellations to continue through May – Alaska Public Media

The CEO of Alaska Airways says the excessive stage of flight cancellations since April will proceed by means of this month.

The Seattle Instances studies that Ben Minicucci stated in a message to workers Thursday night that stability ought to return in June.

“Of the 1,200 flights that we function day-after-day, we’ve been canceling about 50 of them, roughly 4%. That is coming at a time when flights are already full, so rebooking choices are restricted and plenty of of our visitors have skilled terribly lengthy maintain instances,” Minicucci wrote.

Passengers whose journey plans have been disrupted have discovered little assist from the airline to find other ways to their vacation spot, with customer support cellphone strains citing maintain instances of as much as 10 hours.

In a follow-up video message for the touring public that was posted on YouTube Friday morning and despatched by way of e-mail to Alaska’s mileage plan members, Minicucci apologized.

“I’m deeply sorry,” he stated within the two-minute video. “I hear day-after-day from buddies, neighbors and visitors about how disruptive our flight cancellations have been.”

In his message to workers, Minicucci acknowledged that accountability for the state of affairs lies with administration, saying he and the management workforce “take full accountability.”

He stated Alaska began April and Could with 63 fewer pilots than wanted to fly the printed flight schedule. Administration didn’t acknowledge this scarcity till too late.

He stated the airline has centralized workers and schedule planning beneath one workforce and prioritized hiring, coaching and recruiting for pilots, flight attendants and different workgroups.