Forty-seven Alaska Airlines flights were canceled on Friday, about 6 percent of all flights. Ninety-seven, or 13 percent of the company’s remaining flights have been delayed on Friday.
The airlines has been struggling to hire employees since March, and flight cancellations have been the norm for the airlines for well over a month. Tens of thousands of passengers have been delayed or stranded by missed connections, as the company can’t find enough pilots and is beginning to simply cancel entire routes as a result.
For Saturday, May 7, some 26 flights have already been canceled by Alaska Airlines, a disappointment for travelers heading home for Mothers Day weekend. And for Sunday, 18 flights have already been cancelled.
Alaska Airlines pilots have a strike vote beginning Monday and closing on May 25, after contract negotiations between pilots and the company have stood at an impasse for two years. The Air Line Pilots Association began picketing, staging the largest picket of the group’s history on April 1 at several Alaska Airlines hubs around the west.
