American Airlines Desperately Asks Employees to Volunteer to Help Keep up With Busy Summer Travel Season The airline is asking for help during the months of June through August and will not be offering any bonus compensation.
By Emily Rella
The travel industry is set to a see a major boost in a post-pandemic world, with vaccinations allowing for travel bans and restrictions to be lifted and many eager to take long-awaited trips and vacations.
However, many travel industry workers and employees were either laid off or furloughed during the pandemic, making operating at a normal level of efficiency and capacity a difficult adjustment for companies.
This is especially true of the airline industry, which saw a staggering loss of $370 billion in the year 2020.
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Airlines are coming up with new and desperate ways to staff employees to meet current travel demand, and sometimes that means using the the old-fashioned method of simply asking for volunteers.
American Airlines has opted to adopt this strategy by asking employees staffed in Texas to help volunteer this summer for operations at Dallas-Fort Worth airport, a major hub for the airlines which is also headquartered in the same city.
The airline is asking for help during the months of June through August and will not be offering any bonus compensation to employees who choose to participate in the six-hour shifts.
"As we look forward to welcoming back more of our customers this summer, we know they're counting on us to deliver a reliable operation and help them feel comfortable as they return after many months away from traveling," said American Airlines spokeswoman Sarah Jantz.
Related: American Airlines Will Let Travelers Use Digital Vaccine Passports
The request for help was sent through an internal memo to employees, obtained by The Dallas Morning News.
Employees who volunteer will have to sign up for a minimum of three shifts, with each volunteer shift counting towards their weekly hours.
Dallas-Fort Worth has unofficially become to be considered American Airlines' primary hub, with over 900 daily flights on the airline leaving the airport as of 2019.
The airline is facing a tough comeback after losing nearly 30% of its workforce (40,000 workers) due to pandemic-related cuts and voluntary leave last October.
American Airlines Group Inc. (AAL) was back up about 0.23% year over year as of Tuesday morning after a devastating past year and a half of market volatility due to the pandemic.
Related: Delta Air Lines CEO: New hires must be vaccinated for COVID-19
