I'm sitting here at Gate 45 at Piedmont Triad International Airport in Greensboro, NC. This is a great airport. I'd use it for all my future airport needs but I suppose I'd have to move to Greensboro to make that work. Doesn't sound practical, does it?
Due to some careless oversight on their part, American Airlines actually had my reservation. Someone's getting fired for this.
My flight is scheduled to take off at 12:50 but it's been delayed…to 12:56. I asked why and a nice lady told me it was because of "mandatory crew turnaround time." When the crew is finished for the day, there's a specified amount of time they must have off before they can be sent out on another flight. I guess that extra six minutes of nap time makes a big difference.
So why has American Airlines been canceling flights faster than a TV network axing shows I worked on? A reader of this site named Craig (just Craig) just sent me what seems like a sound explanation…
American Airlines recently sued the TWU-IAM, the union representing their mechanics. AA claimed the union has staged an illegal work slowdown that has led to 650 unnecessary flight cancellations and over 1,500 unnecessary maintenance delays. All told, 125,000 customers have been affected.
Sounds right to me…and no, I'm not mad at the union. They might be being unreasonable but so might Management. I don't know enough about the situation to say. It could even be both at fault. What I do know is that my plane is about to board early. Blog to you later.