Alaska Airlines CEO anticipates ‘choppy May,’ issues mea culpa as flight cancellations rack up

“Simply put, we had 63 fewer pilots than what we planned for when we built our schedule. By the time we got this error, April and May schedules were bid on by our pilots and flight attendants, making it impossible to sufficiently adjust schedules to avoid cancellations,” Alaska Airlines CEO Ben Minicucci said in a video statement.

“The month of May will continue to be choppy and we’re doing everything we can to minimize the impact on you. For June and beyond, we’ve made significant changes to ensure a high degree of reliability. This includes hiring and training 150 new pilots, 200 additional reservation agents, and 1100 new flight attendants,” the CEO continued.

Curley, a frequent Alaskan Airlines traveler, said while the company works out a new contract, partly in an effort to retain employees, cancelations are most likely to get worse. “As we head into the summer, and travel starts heading back up again, people will be paying more for everything … So Alaska needs to get more pilots in there and have started a program in order to be able to train pilots, they have their own pilot training school,” Curley said.

Why isn’t this bigger news up and down the West Coast?

While this continues to be an ongoing story, big shout out to the great staff of AlaskaAir at the airport and in the air. Always greatest when we travel!

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