Airline CEO Says Flight Attendants Having To Sleep On The Airport Floor During Snowstorms Is Just Part Of The Business
M Stocker | Shutterstock The air travel industry is inherently unpredictable, especially in bad weather. But according to one CEO, that means that airlines bear no responsibility to employees when, say, flight attendants end up sleeping on the airport floor because of snowstorms.
That's what American Airlines' CEO, Robert Isom, recently said after massive winter storms across the U.S. resulted in chaos at the country's airports. His response has left many of his employees furious, and some are now calling for his ouster.
American Airlines' CEO says flight attendants sleeping on the airport floor is just part of the business.
The recent winter weather from Winter Storm Fern wreaked havoc on American air travel, with every major airline facing massive delays and cancellations across the country. For American, that meant more than 10,000 canceled flights, and swarms of employees stranded at airports across the country.
Those employees, however, were subjected to truly astonishing conditions, namely being abandoned in airports to simply bunk down on the floor for days on end. On a quarterly earnings call held smack in the middle of the debacle, Isom waved off the inconvenient situation by telling investors and staff that it was "unacceptable" that "some of our crewmembers didn’t have a place to stay" in recent days.
But he then proceeded to say that, "I also know it comes with the kind of business we run," adding, "This isn’t the only storm that we’ve ever had. It’s not going to be the last storm we’ve had." The problem is, American seemed to be the only airline that had THIS big of a problem.
American Airlines seemed to have much bigger weather-related issues due to massive cost-cutting measures.
Debacle doesn't even begin to cover the meltdown that occurred with American Airlines during the winter weather. All airlines struggled, but none as mightily as American. They not only had more canceled flights, but also total chaos when it came to staffing.
Part of the problem was that cancellation issues were exacerbated by American having no idea where its crews even were due to changes in scheduling and logistics software. This meant the airline didn't know its crewmembers were missing until they didn't show up to their subsequent flights, forcing more cancellations.
In a series of tweets, an airline industry expert known online as @JonNYC called it "a disaster worse than I’ve ever seen,” saying he'd spoken to crewmembers who were not only "lost for days" with no lodging but who couldn't even get through to their employer by phone because "phone lines keep crashing." There were even reports of crew members being on hold for as long as 12 hours.
Insiders have alleged that this is all due to drastic cost-cutting measures at American, including offshoring most of its IT teams to save money and forcing employees to use a third-party vendor to schedule any necessary lodging. The airline also has policies that forbid crewmembers from arranging their own hotels.
Some American Airlines crewmembers are now calling for the CEO's ouster.
To say that Isom's blasé "part of the business" attitude to this debacle has not gone over well would be an understatement. But it goes far beyond bad media reports and social media chatter. The airline's flight attendants immediately called for Isom's ouster from the company. Now, its pilots are joining them, too.
The Winter Storm Fern debacle, coupled with the fact that Isom's draconian cost-cutting measures have not shown financial results and have left American lagging behind its main competitors, Delta and United, has led its pilots' union to consider holding a Vote of No Confidence in Isom later this week.
In a letter to union members, the American Pilots Association President Nick Silva wrote that "the company under this management team appears to lack the tools, creativity, leadership, and willpower to return American to prominence among its peers." Given how much drama and how little results Isom's moves have brought, that seems like a pretty fair summation.
John Sundholm is a writer, editor, and video personality with 20 years of experience in media and entertainment. He covers culture, mental health, and human interest topics.
