American Airlines cancels 1% of July flights

American Airlines has dropped about 1 percent of its scheduled daily flights in July after a faster-than-expected surge in summer travel has led to crew shortages.

The airline will cancel 950 flights during the first 13 days of July after it scrapped more than 400 flights over the weekend and into Monday.

American cited poor weather conditions at its Miami and Chicago hubs, which exacerbated a shortfall in pilots. In some cases, delays caused by storms exhausted its group of reserve pilots.

American flies to Eastern Iowa Airport in Cedar Rapids.

The sudden jump in demand has strained airlines’ ability to rebuild operations cut back amid the onset of the pandemic last year.

Pilots who took leave and those who were switched to new types of planes have had to be retrained as flight demand has recovered to near-2019 levels.

The squeeze seems to be affecting American the most as of Monday.

That carrier accounted for 125 of the 142 canceled flights within, into or out of the United States, according to tracking website FlightAware.

American and other airlines have had trouble matching their desire to offer flights with their ability to assemble crews, although it expects to complete training for furloughed pilots by the end of June.

The airline said it dropped flights in markets that have other options for passengers and is working to make schedule changes in advance of travelers’ departure dates.