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American Airlines Accidentally Let Too Many Pilots Take Off The Holidays (npr.org)
A glitch in American Airlines' pilot scheduling system means that thousands of flights during the holiday season currently do not have pilots assigned to fly them. From a report: The shortage was caused by an error in the system pilots use to bid for time off, the Allied Pilots Association told NPR. The union represents the airline's 15,000 pilots. "The airline is a 24/7 op," union spokesman Dennis Tajer told 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.'"
I'm a former software engineer, now airline pilot.
Trust me, you NEVER want airplanes to fly themselves. Airplanes have no fail-safe mode. Software can ALWAYS fail even in the most advanced HAL9000. Worst case, if sensors that feed the computer fail, or if power fails, you're shit out of luck and everyone dies.
Even with pilots in control, the software that helps automate routine tasks fails constantly. I've personally prevented at least a dozen tragedies.
I work in the airline industry. This is a huge mess for American...it's not like they can just get some temporary holiday help off the street, and airlines have very few pilots sitting around on reserve. Even with the reserve pilots, who are usually the newbies, they have to match up who's qualified to fly certain equipment, keep track of duty hours, maximum flying hours per month. Having a few key flights cancelled due to crew shortages cascades through the whole system...crew and equipment expected to be in certain places doesn't get there in time, so the onward flights in the schedule can't run either. This is where you see things on CNN showing airport terminals with thousands of people milling around with nowhere to go.
In a seniority-based system. the least senior pilots are probably going to end up getting their vacation cancelled and paid extra to entice them to not say they're unfit to fly. They're also going to have to pick whose turn it is in IT to be the official scapegoat. Airline scheduling is not an easy thing, but the computers doing the schedule rely on human inputs as well.
Airline pilot economics is a little different than your average IT or development job. You invest years and years in training, and know everything about how the aircraft types you're qualified to operate work. It's also kind of like military experience, in that it's not easily transferrable to jobs outside the industry. Pilots often buy "loss of license" insurance because losing the ability to fly basically means you've flushed all that investment in training and time-in-grade down the toilet. Imagine being an A380 or 777 captain making $250K+ a year flying all over the world, then getting hit by a car or losing your vision.
So the airline isn't totally powerless in this scenario, but their options aren't good either.
It's not getting a job that is the issue, it's keeping your seniority. Pilot jobs are easy to get if you have the necessary hours and ratings. What you cannot do though is retain your seniority. Seniority is how you get the routes you would like to fly. Without seniority you get the routes nobody else will take.