American Airlines cancels flights at Philly Airport due to high winds in Dallas

American Airlines canceled 25 flights scheduled to depart and arrive at Philadelphia International Airport on Sunday, the result of staff shortages stemming from high winds that have hampered operations at the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport over the last several days, an airline spokesperson said.

There were 13 canceled departure flights and 12 canceled arriving flights, said the spokesperson, who noted that 181 flights were scheduled to depart from Philadelphia on Sunday.

American Airlines is the Philadelphia airport’s dominant carrier.

“We certainly don’t expect there to be a significant amount of residual cancellations. We’ve seen operations normalize today, and we’ll normalize entirely moving into early next week,” said the spokesperson, who added that one departure flight for Monday has been canceled out of 248 scheduled flights.

In a letter sent to employees Saturday, American Airlines said: “This week saw two days of severe winds in DFW, with gusts of up to 50 mph on Thursday, creating crosswind limitations that sharply reduced arrival capacity by more than half. This weather drove a large number of cancellations at DFW, as we could only use two runways instead of the usual five that handle our operation.

“With additional weather throughout the system, our staffing begins to run tight as crew members end up out of their regular flight sequences. To make sure we are taking care of our customers and providing scheduling certainty for our crews, we have adjusted our operation for the last few days this month by proactively canceling some flights.”

The letter noted that most customers impacted by cancellations were rebooked the same day.

As the airline continues to emerge from the pandemic, it is ramping up hiring. Tomorrow, nearly 1,800 flight attendants who had been on leave will begin returning to work; more than 600 newly hired flight attendants will be working by the end of December; and an additional 4,000 new employees are being hired to work in airports across the system in the fourth quarter, the letter stated.