Earlier this summer, United Airlines asked its pilots to take unpaid leave next month, citing delayed plane deliveries from Boeing.
In a memo sent to pilots Friday, the United Section of the Air Line Pilots Association wrote that the union expects the airline to extend the offer of unpaid leave until this summer “and potentially until the fall”.
United employed 13,831 pilots in 2022, according to the company’s most recent data.
The union’s memo released Friday said flight forecasts have been “significantly reduced” due to changes to United’s Boeing 787 and 737 deliveries and that the airline expects these issues to impact d other fleets.
This summer was set to be the busiest for United in a decade. In January, the company announced that it added more than 100 daily departures from U.S. hubs and announced its largest transatlantic schedule.
Specific changes to United’s summer flight schedule were not immediately available. The company did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider. sent outside normal business hours.
Boeing’s problems could hurt passengers on other airlines this summer. Travelers can see rescheduled flights as airlines withdraw planes from service and rearrange their schedules to accommodate new plane delays. Prices could also rise: the CEO of Ryanair, which operates only Boeing 737s, said last month that ticket prices could rise by 10% because the company would not have all the planes ordered on time.
Summer is one of the busiest times for U.S. carriers. June 2023 saw an average of 2.56 million passengers per day pass through Transportation Security Administration checkpoints, making it the busiest month at U.S. airports since July 2019.
Boeing woes hit airlines around the world
United and other airlines, including Southwest Airlines and Ryanair, are scrambling to work with reduced deliveries from Boeing, as the U.S. planemaker focuses on correcting safety lapses after the Alaska Airlines flight crash from January 5. Boeing’s 737 aircraft are most commonly used on domestic routes.
“It’s a simple question of supply and demand,” aviation analyst Richard Aboulafia told BI last month. “With production of new aircraft severely limited, particularly at Boeing, and a limited number of older aircraft that can be kept in service longer, and demand still very strong, prices are likely to increase.”
Scott Kirby, United’s CEO, has voiced his frustrations with Boeing and said in January that he planned to modify planes ordered by the company in the future. New planes could ease United’s problems in coming years, but they wouldn’t be delivered in time for this summer’s travel rush.
The Boeing plane delay comes amid turmoil for United’s operations. Last week, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration said it was increasingly monitoring United to ensure the airline’s compliance with safety regulations. The oversight follows a series of safety incidents in the past month alone, including an overflowing toilet on a flight from Frankfurt, a missing exterior panel on a plane that landed in Oregon, and a lost tire after takeoff of a flight from San Francisco to Japan. .
Last month, more than 1,000 flights were delayed or canceled — a combination of weather conditions, technological issues and airspace constraints – disturb Travel plans for spring break in the United States.
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