American Air blunder forces carrier to cut leave offer in half

American Airlines Group Inc. botched its offer of paid time off to some pilots, forcing the carrier to pull back offers for 1,200 slots and award short-term voluntary leave to just 600 of them.

One hundred pilots of Airbus SE A320 and Boeing Co. 737 narrow-body jets can start leave Wednesday, the airline said by email to the crew members. Another 500 can begin their time off April 6. The carrier discovered the error Tuesday, the deadline for pilots to bid on the leaves, which give them partial salary.

“The processing of this award has certainly created uncertainty and confusion,” Chip Long, managing director of flight line operations, said in the memo. Temporary time off will be awarded to additional pilots in May.

American has offered leaves across its workforce to reduce costs while slashing its global schedule amid the collapse in demand caused by the new coronavirus. Carriers across the U.S. have parked planes, frozen hiring, cut executive salaries and taken other steps in response to travel demand that’s dropped about 90%.

American separately offered time off to 836 pilots flying its largest aircraft, the majority of which are temporarily grounded as nearly all international flights have been suspended. Those leaves, along with 38 for aviators assigned to Embraer SA E190s, also take effect Wednesday. The E190s are set to be retired early.

“Over the past few days, we have added to the stress and uncertainty in finalizing the voluntary leave of absence awards,” Kimball Stone, senior vice president of American’s flight and integrated operations center, said in an earlier email advising pilots of the mistaken offer.

American, which has about 15,000 pilots, has cut its flight schedule by 60% this month and 80% in May.

The airline also has awarded voluntary early retirement to 616 pilots age 62 or older. Yet “IT challenges” caused confusion for those crew members as well, delaying notifications to pilots. As a result, some pilots were “in the uncomfortable position of knowing you were off, yet still showing schedule obligations,” Stone’s letter said.