HORIZON AIR CANCELS HUNDREDS OF FLIGHTS
The crisis shortage of pilots at Horizon Air and the associated hundreds of canceled flights seem to continue in the autumn as well. Regional airlines belonging to the Alaska Air group don’t have enough pilots to fly their Q400 turboprop Bombarders.
Company management tries to slam the holes in flight plan with aircraft rentals, for example from SkyWest or from Alaska Airlines, but the problem is unlikely to be eliminated at least until this winter.
“We make every effort to overcome it. It’s a painful and frustrating experience. Unfortunately, stabilization of airlines means to take a few steps back. We will limit our flight plan from early August.” said Dave Campbell, executive director Horizon Air.
Horizon Air had to cancel over 310 flights since June. At this point they have 60 pilots – but they haven’t gone through the Q400 Bombardier training, the first of them will be able to sit in the cockpit in December.
