American Airlines is canceling extended vacations for around 3,300 flight attendants and encouraging them to return to work well in advance of the vacation.
And American plans to hire 800 new flight attendants by March next year, according to an airline manager.
The moves are the latest indication that U.S. vacation travel is recovering from the pandemic faster than airlines anticipated.
“Rising customer demand and new routes starting later this year mean we need more flight attendants to run the airline,” said Brady Byrnes, vice president of air services for the airline, flight attendants in a memo Thursday.
Byrnes said cabin crews returning from vacation will return to flights in November or December.
Last year, American offered flight attendants and other employees long-term leave of absence to cut costs while the company grappled with a sharp drop in travel caused by the coronavirus outbreak. Other airlines did the same. Now they need people.
Ed Bastian, CEO of Delta Air Lines, said this week that his airline expects to hire between 4,000 and 5,000 people this year. Delta plans to add 1,300 reservation agents by the fall to reduce long waiting times for customers calling the airline. It also adds customer service, freight and airport staff, and plans to hire more than 1,000 pilots by next summer.
When the pandemic broke out, the number of air travelers in the US fell below 100,000 on some days, a level not reached in decades. This year it has increased from less than 700,000 a day in early February to 2 million a day in July.
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