American Airlines cancellations, delays bring travel headaches for TPA passengers

TAMPA, Fla. - Delays and cancellations of American Airlines flights over the weekend caused a mess at the Tampa International Airport.

"It is very much a nightmare and it has been a hectic, long day," said passenger Alfrieda Lewis, who was trying to get home to Tampa from Miami.

The airline says staffing shortages and bad weather are to blame.

"I had a flight that was canceled at 8 p.m. Then. I had a flight that was canceled at 11 o'clock, then a delay from 1:50 and we finally left the airport at a quarter to three," Lewis said.

READ: FAA seeing slight drop in unruly passengers over past week

Lines weaved around switchbacks at the check-in counter. Downstairs at baggage claim, there were more lines and passengers trying to figure where their bags were and how they're going to get home. Some passengers say their flights were canceled after several delays.

"They're asking us to go and get our luggage which we checked in, and go to the ticket counter and try to get a flight back," said Buell Slaughter, who was trying to fly to Philadelphia. He says his wife was trying to get a flight out of Tampa and on another airline so they're not stranded. "It's a nightmare for a lot of people. There's a lot of kids, families with young kids and older people here. It's very unfair."

Some travelers, like Suzanne Menorca and William Reading, had to fly to Sarasota, then pick their bags up at TPA after flying for more than a day from Europe.

"We live in Lecanto in Black Diamond in Crystal River, but we had to fly to Sarasota to get back to here to get our bags. Our bags are here and somehow they came here after American put us out of business in Philly," they said.

MORE: American Airlines cancels hundreds of flights ahead of Halloween

American Airlines says it does not expect the delays to last long-term, and many passengers at TPA tell FOX 13 they were re-booked for flights on Monday. But, a long-time American Airlines pilot says the razor-thin staffing that’s contributing to thousands of cancellations doesn’t bode well for smooth holiday travel.

"This is unacceptable. It's got to change. Enough is enough and we've got the holiday season to focus on," said Cpt. Dennis Tajer.

Tajer has flown for American for the last 30 years and serves as the spokesman for Allied Pilots Association Union.

He says this is about blocking and tackling, and management is not getting it done.

"We’ve seen management has blamed the weather and the calendar, saying it’s the end of the month and we’ve had some weather and crews are maxed out on time, but that weather happened several days ago. We have experienced this throughout the summer. Management will experience a storm that’s generated by Mother Nature, and they’ll create a series of storms after."

READ: CDC: COVID-19 health rules extended for cruise lines until January 2022

The airline says it aims to increase staffing across all of its operations ahead of the holiday season -- with nearly 1,800 flight attendants returning from leave and more than 600 newly-hired flight attendants starting by the end of the year.

But Tajer says, there are already retention woes.

"They've got instructor pilots that are union pilots that no longer want to do the job because the quality of life and the compensation are well below our peers," he said. "We don't know how they're going to get that done."

American is just the latest airline to struggle with a return to the level of pre-pandemic travel.

In mid-October, Southwest Airlines suffered a similar experience with the mass cancellation of more than 2,000 flights. The company later attributed it due to a lack of staff that crippled the flight schedule after bad weather in Florida threw everything into disarray. The move stranded numerous passengers at airports nationwide.