After a busy summer travel season of high prices, canceled flights and delays, airlines and travelers are adjusting their habits and expectations.
United ramp trainer Margaret McNamara, right, works with new trainee Philip Brown as he signals a departing plane at O’Hare International Airport on Aug. 23, 2022.
“I’m very concerned that if airlines don’t do a better job as we enter the fall, they will be chilling passenger demand for the holiday season,” said Henry Harteveldt, travel industry analyst and president of Atmosphere Research Group. More back-to-back weather systems are posing challenges for airlines, and key to their ability to recover from those systems are reserves of staff, flight crews and equipment, Harteveldt said.to build back their workforces, some are paring back their schedules in the fall to build in more buffer, including in Chicago, where United and American airlines operate major hubs at O’Hare.
In a statement, an American Airlines spokesperson said such adjustments are a typical part of planning, as schedules are published nearly a year in advance and then tweaked closer in as airline executives make operating decisions. “The idea is, ‘Get them trained,’” said Omar Idris, United’s vice president at O’Hare. “It’s a long training window, there’s a lot of lead time, there’s background checks that have to happen. There’s proficiency that has to be gained. So we want these employees that we’re hiring today, in the late summer and early fall, to be in tiptop readiness for spring break and summer.
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