According to Yahoo News, a US pilot said that US flights are not safe for passengers because of what he called an “inhumane level” of pressure put on pilots amid an intensifying nationwide pilot shortage.
A spokesman for a pilots union, pilot Dennis Tajer, said that Americans should be “concerned” about their safety while flying.
Speaking on CNBC’s Squawk Box, Mr Tajer said: “They need to be concerned because I’m on TV as a representative for our union saying, ‘There’s a problem here.’”
“I don’t fly the airplane unless I’m fit to fly and the airplane’s ready to go. But the fact that you’re pushing us and pushing us… This is not a safety culture. The FAA [Federal Aviation Administration] should come in and look at this,” he said.
In Dallas on Tuesday, more than 1,300 Southwest pilots picketed, with signs about pilot fatigue, stagnant contract negotiations and stress.
Chronic staff shortages have been forcing the airlines to cancel flights and are causing delays and chaos at the airports.
The numbers of travelers have drastically increased as Americans take advantage of lessening Covid-19 restrictions and many are eager to get away. The surge in travel demand has caused major delays and thousands of cancellations due to many pilots and other airline staff having been laid off or retired during the last two years of the pandemic.
The TSA said it screened over 2.4 million people through airports Father’s Day weekend, the largest number since Thanksgiving 2021.
Thousands of flights were canceled or delayed just this past weekend and the chaos is expected to continue.
Delta and Southwest both announced changes in their schedules, reflecting fewer flights.
Some airlines say they are paying overtime in order to be able to provide flights, and airlines are negotiating to give pay raises to pilots, in order to attract more personnel.
Citing the shortage of pilots, American Airlines has decided to stop service to some major airports in the US, beginning in September.
The airports that will no longer service American Airlines starting September 7, following the Labor Day weekend, are Dubuque Regional Airport in Iowa, Long Island MacArthur Airport and Ithaca Tompkins International Airport in New York, and Eugene F. Kranz Toledo Express Airport in Ohio. The airline has two flights a day from each of these airports.
The American Airlines statement said the “regional pilot shortage affecting the airline industry” is the reason for cutting service to the four airports.
Biden administration Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg met with airline leaders this week to discuss the widespread flight disruptions across the US. His scheduled flight from Washington, DC to New York was canceled on Friday and he chose to drive to New York.
“I thought, this is pretty on the nose,” Buttigieg told NPR. “It illustrates what millions of passengers are concerned about right now.”
