Airlines
U.S. Dispute over Pilot Shortages, Flight Disruptions Ratchets Up
ALPA stages nationwide picketing campaign in U.S. ahead of expected holiday travel crunch.
Passengers will crowd airport terminals over the Labor Day weekend, marking the unofficial end of summer in the U.S. (Photo: Pixabay)
Passengers will crowd airport terminals over the Labor Day weekend, marking the unofficial end of summer in the U.S. (Photo: Pixabay)

The Air Line Pilots Association’s launch of a nationwide informational picketing campaign on September 1 raises the temperature in a heated dispute over the existence of a pilot shortage in the U.S. and the source of disruptions in operations among airlines. While airlines blame crew shortages and, more recently, government bungling leading to air traffic control interruptions, for example, ALPA places the responsibility squarely on airlines for their mismanagement of staffing needs following what the union characterizes as a predictable result of the recovery of travel demand amid the waning of the Covid pandemic.