Pilots union will picket over airlines’ performance: Travel Weekly

The Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) will picket at a dozen large U.S. airports this coming Thursday in an effort to highlight the union’s call for airlines to improve operations and reduce flight delays and cancellations.

Picketing will occur in blocks of two hours each at Atlanta, Chicago O’Hare, Detroit, JFK, Las Vegas, LAX, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Washington Reagan National, Orlando, Salt Lake City, San Francisco and Seattle airports.

The protests are timed to coincide with the start of Labor Day weekend travel.

“It’s time to prioritize passengers and recognize the extraordinary sacrifices pilots made during the pandemic,” ALPA said in a prepared statement.

Thus far this year, U.S. airlines have canceled 2.6% of flights and delayed 21.3%, according to FlightAware. That compares to a cancellation rate of 2% and a delay rate of 17.2% during the same period in 2019.

This month, U.S. carriers have canceled 2.1% of flights and delayed 22.1%.

ALPA is among the eight unions representing U.S. airline industry workers that earlier this month launched the Demand No Stock Buybacks campaign, which calls for airlines to refrain from resuming share buybacks until they have achieved operational normalcy.

Airlines have been forbidden since spring 2020 from engaging in share buybacks as part of the Payroll Support Program, which awarded $58 billion in payroll grants to airlines and airline contractors during the pandemic. The restriction ends on Oct. 1.