Oops, no pilots! Snafu puts thousands of American Airlines holiday flights in peril 
 
 CLOSE Just in time for the holidays, a computer glitch could cause 15,000 American Airlines flights to be pilotless. USA TODAY 
 
 UPDATE: The Grinch may not steal Christmas at American Airlines, after all. American says the staffing snafu caused by a glitch in its pilot scheduling system is nearly resolved. (More: Read the latest update to this story here) 
 
 ORIGINAL POST: American Airlines pilots are warning that as many as 15,000 holiday flights face staffing issues because of a scheduling snafu, which the carrier said has been fixed. 
 
 “On Friday, management disclosed a failure within the pilot schedule bidding system. As a result, thousands of flights currently do not have pilots assigned to fly them during the upcoming critical holiday period,” the Allied Pilots Association (APA) that represents American’s pilots said in a message to members via its website. 
 
 The glitch affected the system in which pilots modify their flight assignments, inadvertently allowing them to drop flights that needed to be staffed during the busy holiday period. 
 
 "The system went from responsibly scheduling everybody to becoming Santa Claus to everyone," APA spokesman Dennis Tajer said to CNBC. "The computer said, 'Hey ya'll. You want the days off? You got it.'" 
 
 American has said the problem has been fixed and that the company does not expect continued issues. 
 
 “We are working diligently to address the issue and expect to avoid cancellations this holiday season," American spokesman Matt Miller said to USA TODAY's Today in the Sky blog. "We have reserve pilots to help cover flying in December, and we are paying pilots who pick up certain open trips 150% of their hourly rate – as much as we are allowed to pay them per the contract." 
 
 However, the APA has already filed a grievance about that idea, saying the company’s proposed solution violates its contract because American “unilaterally invoked a solution for crewing affected flights.” The union added: "By not including APA in developing collaborative solutions to this critical holiday scheduling failure, management’s actions contrast with their handling of previous scheduling failures involving other work groups." 
 
 BY THE NUMBERS: The fleet and hubs of American Airlines, by the numbers (story continues below) 
 
 The pilots’ union estimated that when the problem was discovered late last week, about 19,000 cockpit seats were left empty. 
 
 “This is a potential crisis that we see well in advance,” Capt. Dennis Tajer, a spokesman for the union, said to The Associated Press. “This is very unusual.” 
 
 As a result of the glitch, the pilots’ union says about 15,000 flights were scheduled without a captain, a co-pilot or both. 
 
 The airline was seeking late-December pilot staffing at a number of its hubs, according to a scheduling memo sent by American to its pilots in the wake of the glitch. Dallas/Fort Worth, Charlotte, New York LaGuardia, Chicago O’Hare and Philadelphia were all among the airports where American was offering extra pay in the latter part of the month, according to a copy of the memo obtained by Today in the Sky. 
 
 American declined to confirm the number of flights initially affected, but spokesman Miller said the company was doing everything it could to get the staffing situation resolved. 
 
 "We will work with the APA to take care of our pilots and ensure we get our customers to where they need to go over the holidays," he said to Today in the Sky. 
 
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 Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2zBzOT1 ||||| A scheduling glitch that allowed American Airlines pilots to take vacation at the same time has left thousands of flights during the busy holiday travel period next month without pilots assigned to them. 
 
 American Airlines, the largest U.S. airline, is now offering pilots 150 percent of hourly pay to work those dates, an airline spokesman said. 
 
 The scheduling problem has left flights from some of American Airlines' biggest hubs without pilots including Miami, Dallas-Fort Worth, Chicago's O'Hare and New York's LaGuardia Airport, without pilots, according to a memo from the airline to pilots, which was seen by CNBC. 
 
 The union estimates some 15,000 flights next month don't have pilots assigned to fly them. 
 
 Pilots loaded up their schedules with flights in early December but many opted to take days off around the holidays, after the system allowed it. 
 
 "The airline is a 24/7 op," said Dennis Tajer, an American Airlines captain and a spokesman for the pilot's union. "The system went from responsibly scheduling everybody to becoming Santa Claus to everyone. 
 
 "The computer said, 'Hey ya'll. You want the days off? You got it.'" 
 
 American Airlines spokesman Matt Miller said the airline's employees are "working diligently to address the issue and expect to avoid cancellations this holiday season. 
 
 "We have reserve pilots to help cover flying in December, and we are paying pilots who pick up certain open trips 150 percent of their hourly rate — as much as we are allowed to pay them per the contract," he said. "We will work with the APA to take care of our pilots and ensure we get our customers to where they need to go over the holidays." 
 
 The Allied Pilots Association, which represents some 15,000 American Airlines pilots, said the airline notified the union about a problem with the pilots' schedule bidding system last Friday. 
 
 The union has filed a grievance, saying the airline's solution violates the pilots' contract because of how the airline restricted overtime pay. 
 
 Budget airline Ryanair in September canceled some 2,000 flights, stranding thousands of travelers, due to pilot scheduling problems. 
 
 It was unclear how much the scheduling problem will cost American Airlines, if anything. But higher labor costs have concerned investors in the past. American Airlines shares tumbled after the airline announced pay raises for pilots and flight attendants earlier this year. 
 
 Shares of American Airlines gave up earlier gains after reports of the glitch, ending the day up less than 0.1 percent. Competitor United Airlines rose 3.2 percent, while Delta Air Lines added 3 percent. ||||| A scheduling glitch has left American Airlines without enough pilots and staff during the busy December travel period, the airline's pilot union said on Wednesday. 
 
 The Allied Pilots Association (APA) that represents pilots at the country's largest airline said in a statement that it was notified Friday by the carrier of "a failure within the pilot schedule bidding system. As a result, thousands of flights currently do not have pilots assigned to fly them during the upcoming critical holiday period.". 
 
 American Airlines said it is working diligently to address the issue and expects to "avoid cancellations this holiday season." 
 
 "We have reserve pilots to help cover flying in December, and we are paying pilots who pick up certain open trips 150 percent of their hourly rate -- as much as we are allowed to pay them per the contract. We will work with the APA to take care of our pilots and ensure we get our customers to where they need to go over the holidays," American Airlines (AAL) spokesman Matt Miller said in a statement. 
 
 But the pilots' union is urging crews not to take these assignments because they might violate the union contract. 
 
 "While the overtime is legal, the way they're doling out is not in compliance with our contract," said Capt. Dennis Tajer, spokesman for the APA in an interview with CNN. "The contract is important, but the most important of this is ensuring our passengers are taken care of...but this is going to require a partnership to solve it, regardless of what the rules are." 
 
 Miller said American's leadership spoke to the APA Wednesday afternoon to hammer out a resolution to the staffing shortage. 
 
 The airline declined to say how many flights might be impacted by the staff shortages. American has about 200,000 flights scheduled for December and operates on average 6,700 daily. The scheduling issues predominant affect the second half of December around the holidays when a computer system inadvertently gave pilots the opportunity to withdraw from flying. ||||| Every American Airlines flight has been grounded by the FAA following a computer outage. Jack Nicas reports. Photo: AP. 
 
 AMR Corp.'s American Airlines canceled or delayed at least 1,950 flights after losing access to a key computer system, a hit to the airline's reputation as it prepares for a complicated merger with US Airways Group Inc. that poses the risk of similar disruptions. 
 
 View Slideshow David Goldman/Associated Press An American Airlines ticket agent talked on the phone while assisting passengers at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta Tuesday. 
 
 American held most of its flights that were scheduled to depart between 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. EDT on Tuesday while the carrier tried to regain access to its reservations system, which is the heart of many of the airline's operations, including passenger lists and flight schedules. 
 
 By 6:30 p.m. Eastern time, American had canceled about 880 flights and delayed 1,070 flights, said Mark Duell of FlightAware.com, a flight-tracking website. Mr. Duell said he expects the disruptions would cascade into Wednesday because many aircraft and crews would be out of position. 
 
 American said that it would reposition aircraft and crews and would add flights as needed to accommodate disrupted travelers. The airline said it expects operations to run normally on Wednesday. 
 
 Bobby Gordon, a 27-year-old finance manager for a national retailer, said his American flight scheduled to depart Fort Lauderdale, Fla., at noon EDT was stranded on the tarmac for an hour before returning to the gate. By 4:30 p.m. EDT, he and his family were trying to arrange a flight home to San Francisco on another airline, but American employees said they couldn't release the family's checked bags. 
 
 Enlarge Image Close Associated Press An American Airlines ticket agent talks assists passengers checking in at Hartsfield-Jackson airport in Atlanta on Tuesday. 
 
 "We're being held captive by our luggage," Mr. Gordon said. "It's bizarre." 
 
 Computer outages in the highly automated airline industry occur several times a year. The problems can be caused by power failures, inadvertent severing of telecommunications links, corrupted software, bad hardware or human error. They disrupt airline operations because the systems handle everything from flight dispatching to crew scheduling, from ticket sales to frequent-flier accounts. If its system is down, an airline effectively can't fly. 
 
 American didn't immediately say what triggered Tuesday's outage. American's reservations system is hosted by Sabre Holdings Corp., an airline ticketing company. American said that the problem wasn't with Sabre, but rather the carrier's ability to access the system. Part of the reservations system calculates the weight of the airplane based off passenger, fuel and luggage data, which is necessary for the airplane to safely take off. 
 
 American said it told the Federal Aviation Administration that it was holding its flights, and the FAA instituted a nationwide "ground stop," holding all American flights at their origin airports until the order was canceled at most airports at about 5 p.m. EDT. American's aircraft that were airborne during the ground stop continued to their destinations, the FAA said. 
 
 Network outages are big risks for airline mergers. Integrating reservations systems is a complex and enormous task for airlines, partly because they have to take the systems temporarily offline, even though flight operations must continue. 
 
 In 2007, following the merger of US Airways and America West Airlines, the integration of the carriers' reservation systems caused the airline's check-in kiosks to crash across the country. Last year, United Continental Holdings Inc. was hit by computer snafus when it combined United and Continental Airlines' reservation systems. 
 
 United Airlines also suffered widespread computer-network problems last summer that caused hundreds of flight delays around the world. The carrier delayed flights when a computer system shut down for two hours, forcing gate agents to manually process passengers. 
 
 American and US Airways disclosed plans to merge in February. If federal antitrust officials approve the merger, they would have to eventually meld their computer systems, raising the possibility of similar disruptions. 
 
 During the United and Continental integration, United migrated to the smaller Continental's computer system, causing problems. Tom Horton, AMR's chief executive, said in an interview last month that "it is important to adopt the systems and processes of the larger airline unless there is a compelling reason not to. We're not going to go re-engineer the company." American is almost twice the size of US Airways. He added that the American and US Airways management teams were approaching the integration "with an appropriate level of humility." 
 
 Write to Jack Nicas at jack.nicas@wsj.com 
 
 A version of this article appeared April 17, 2013, on page B1 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Outage Snarls American Airlines.
– An airline pilots union says a computer glitch at American Airlines left approximately 15,000 scheduled flights during the busy December holiday travel season without a captain, co-pilot, or both, USA Today reports. The Allied Pilots Association tells CNN it learned about "a failure within the pilot scheduling bidding system" last Friday. "Thousands of flights currently do not have pilots assigned to fly them during the upcoming critical holiday period," the APA states. According to the Los Angeles Times, a computer error let too many pilots get time off for the holidays. Or as American Airlines Capt. Dennis Tajer puts it to CNBC: "The system went from responsibly scheduling everybody to becoming Santa Claus to everyone. The computer said, 'Hey ya'll. You want the days off? You got it.'" American Airlines, which isn't confirming the number of affected flights, says it has fixed the glitch and is working to avoid canceling holiday flights. "We have reserve pilots to help cover flying in December, and we are paying pilots who pick up certain open trips 150% of their hourly rate," an American Airlines spokesperson says. This December is expected to be one of the busiest holiday travel seasons in years. Thanksgiving already saw a 3% increase in travelers over 2016.