As the effects of Winter Storm Fern are still wreaking havoc on the nation’s air travel system, American Airlines executives are trying to reassure customers that the carrier is pulling out all the stops to get travelers to their destinations.
“On behalf of everyone at American, I want to assure you it’s been all hands on deck to keep our operation moving,” Heather Garboden, the airline’s chief customer officer, said in a note to fliers on Tuesday.
Five of the airline’s nine hubs have been “significantly impacted” by the massive storm, according to Garboden, noting that American’s home base and largest hub at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) was hit especially hard by Fern’s icy conditions and dangerously cold temperatures.
On Tuesday, DFW had the most flight disruptions of any airport in the U.S., with 411 total delays and 516 cancellations, according to FlightAware data. American flights accounted for most of those disruptions, as it is the largest carrier at the Texas hub. The airline canceled 428 mainline flights out of DFW on Tuesday, and its subsidiary carriers PSA and Envoy Air together canceled an additional 48 flights, FlightAware shows.
The storm’s path across Southern states that are ill-equipped to handle snow and ice has also created a ripple effect in which airport and airline employees are struggling to commute to work, Garboden said in the note.
“We are very sorry for the disruption this weather event has caused, and we thank our team members — many of whom are working overtime and are continuing to safely brave the weather — as they focus on taking care of as many customers as possible,” she said.
Winter Storm Fern began dumping heavy snow and ice across a wide swath of the Southern and Midwestern U.S. on Saturday, before moving along to the East Coast, where some cities were walloped with more than 20 inches of snow through early Monday. Frigid temperatures have been following in the storm’s wake, prolonging the effects of icy conditions and complicating recovery efforts.
American encouraged travelers with plans to fly with the airline this week to continuously check their mobile app and website for the latest information on their flight or take advantage of the carrier’s travel waiver, which allows passengers to change their flight itinerary for free.
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