Airlines are already short-staffed to the point where they are offering bonuses and incentives to cabin crew to work all their scheduled shifts and even pick up some extra duties.
In addition, carriers are also suffering from a pilot shortage to the point where Southwest Airlines' union says it pilots are suffering from fatigue due to haphazard scheduling.
They've even cut back on their schedules for the spring and summer.
Now the question is, what happens if another roadblock is thrown into the mix this summer, which is expected to be one of the biggest air travel seasons in recent memory?
Specifically, while bookings aren't the problem - they are up dramatically as the mask mandate has ended and pent-up demand is surging - re-booking flights could be a major issue.
As CNBC pointed out, airlines will have little to no wiggle room if flights are delayed or canceled by weather or maintenance issues. With jam-packed flights already, and with fewer available flights because of schedule cuts, it's going to be harder to re-book passengers on other flights.
The key, airline officials say, is to anticipate and then try to stop cancellations before the need arises.
"The goal is to prevent the cancellations in the first place so that we don't have to re-accommodate people given the high loads that we expect this summer," Maya Leibman, American's chief information officer, said on the company earnings call last month.
To that end, CNBC noted that American debuted an innovation last month called HEAT - Hub Efficiency Analytics Tool. HEAT helps the airline delay flights earlier so that it doesn't have to cancel them later, using everything from the weather reports to crew availability to how many passengers are using the flight to connect to other cities.
As for staffing, the major airlines believe they have hired enough people to handle the summer flow.
"We made so much progress with customers during the pandemic and really building the United brand," United CEO Scott Kirby said on a conference call in April. "We're not willing to sacrifice that customer goodwill for the possibility of short-term profits."
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