United cancellations far exceed rivals
United Airlines canceled dozens of flights Wednesday, adding to the more than 1,100 cancellations since Dec. 23 that the No. 2 U.S. carrier blamed on weather but its pilots blamed on insufficient staffing.
UAL Corp.'s United has canceled more than four times as many flights as its closest competitor, AMR Corp.'s American Airlines, since a Dec. 23 storm hit its Chicago hub.
United had canceled 58 flights as of Wednesday afternoon, compared with 78 Tuesday. The cancellation rate, while lower than the peak rates last week, is tracking well ahead of rivals, according to data from FlightStats, which tracks airline performance.
"The majority of today's cancellations are as a result of continued recovery from yesterday's weather," said UAL spokeswoman Megan McCarthy.
"Weather for December was the worst in our history," McCarthy said. She said United was "uniquely impacted" by fog and snow storms in its hub cities of Chicago and Denver.
United's pilots union, however, said the airline was simply understaffed during the hectic holiday travel season. Other experts also doubted UAL's explanation but declined to speculate on the airline's staffing needs.
"Management is feeling the pressure from consumers and the pilots to explain what happened," said Joe Schwieterman, transportation expert at DePaul University.
Between Dec. 23 and Dec. 31, United canceled 1,033 flights, compared with 243 cancellations by American, which also has a hub in Chicago, FlightStats said.
"United's cancellation rate during the holidays was off the charts compared to its rivals who serve the same general markets," said David White, FlightStats' vice president of business development, in an e-mail.
United's pilots union blamed management for the poor operational performance over the holiday period.
"They have pared employee staffing to the bare minimum, making them unable to respond to even well-anticipated weather events," the Air Line Pilots Association said in a newspaper ad Sunday.
United disputed that claim, saying it had 115 more pilots in December than it did a year earlier. That equates to a 2 percent increase despite a 1.5 percent decrease in flying, McCarthy said.
The union has long criticized UAL management for labor cost-cuts during the airline's bankruptcy, which ended in February 2006. UAL used its court protection to cut its work force by 25 percent and dump its underfunded pensions on government pension insurers.