American Airlines Experiences A Pilot Shortage

As predicted by The Daily Beagle, reinforcing the vaccine mandate hypothesis

In a previous article we asked if the Southwest Airline disruptions were caused by vaccine mandates. On that article, one plucky Daily Beagle commentator asked us the pertinent question ‘What about the other major airlines?’.

They had all implemented the vaccine mandates, so why were we only seeing it impact Southwest?

We replied that there was an element of unpredictability given mRNA instability, and that disproving the vaccine mandate hypothesis would require one of two things:

1. no further staff sicknesses/shortages, or;

2. no other airlines tipping over.

We issued the confident prediction that ‘we will see more airlines tip-over’.

A Prediction Comes True

Sure enough, this has exactly occurred. The Epoch Times have reported that American Airlines are now cutting back flight routes due to a shortage of pilots:

Of course, American Airlines’ excuses are contradictory — attempting to cover their own tracks. If demand for travel is now ‘soft’, why do they need more pilots? Surely less demand requires fewer pilots? The excuse is dubious.

The Epoch Times’ quote from American Airlines indeed discloses a dark undercurrent is brewing, where American Airlines admit there is a “regional pilot shortage affecting the airline industry”:

In response to the regional pilot shortage affecting the airline industry and soft demand, American Airlines has made the difficult decision to end service in Columbus, Georgia (CSG), Del Rio, Texas (DRT), and Long Beach, California (LGB) this spring,

The Daily Beagle very much doubts this is ‘regional’, as it covers three very distinct States: Georgia, Texas and California. And these are only the ones they’ve been forced to publicly disclose.

American Airlines Admits It Is Industry Wide

What’s interesting to note is American Airlines are declaring this pilot shortage is affecting the entire airline industry, and not simply American Airlines itself.

This dovetails onto Southwest’s reported staff shortages due to unspecified sicknesses and reinforces The Daily Beagle’s point this pilot shortage will be industry wide due to the vaccine mandates:

Of course, American Airlines, unlike Southwest, have failed to disclose why there’s a pilot shortage within the airline industry within their particular domain.

Company Culture A Factor

Another point we raised in response to the question was there are likely to be company culture differences:

An interesting aspect to note, and likely why Southwest are having bigger issues than American Airlines, is although American Airlines gave a lot of bluster about firing unvaccinated pilots, they (unlike many airlines) allowed exemptions for unvaccinated pilots, although it is unclear how easy or successful it would have been to apply for and receive.

They certainly haven’t been crippled to the same extent as Southwest, which saw 70% of flights cancelled, as opposed to American Airlines’ only 3 routes being permanently cancelled. It is likely why they haven’t been impacted by pilot shortages earlier, although the Southwest staff shortages were barely over 2 weeks ago.

Will the airline industry come clean about the reason for pilot shortages?

We will see.

Help The Daily Beagle become financial viable and save lives in the process.

Learned something new?

Or leave a comment below: