FILE - United and Delta airlines cancel flights the day before Christmas Eve due to Omicron variant.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Airlines executives say they are are having trouble hiring pilots, flight attendants and other personnel, and that’s part of what is causing canceled flights and scrapping of service to some airports. American CEO Doug Parker says an October service outage began when high winds shut down three of five runways at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, the airline’s largest hub. American had jets and people in the wrong places, and difficulty getting workers to pick up extra shifts to recover. He says workers are reluctant to take extra shifts due to the risk of the novel coronavirus and unruly passengers. United CEO Scott Kirby says they have to make sure they don’t schedule too many flights for the available resources. They spoke at a Senate Commerce Committee hearing.