American Airlines Will No Longer Fly To These 3 Cities Amid Airport Cuts

American Airlines (AAL) is cutting three cities from its schedule amid a shortage of pilots, which has caused a crush of cancelations of flights across the airline industry in recent weeks.

American will stop flying to Toledo, Ohio, as well as Ithaca and Islip, New York, starting on Sept. 7, according to the Dallas Morning News.

In a statement obtained by the news outlet, American Airlines spokeswoman Andrea Koos said, “In response to the regional pilot shortage affecting the airline industry, American Airlines has made the difficult decision to end service in Islip and Ithaca, New York, and Toledo, Ohio, effective Sept. 7.

“We’re extremely grateful for the care and service our team members provided to our customers in Islip, Ithaca and Toledo, and are working closely with them during this time. We’ll proactively reach out to customers scheduled to travel after this date to offer alternate arrangements.”

The airline industry has been faced with a shortage of pilots as many retired and took buyouts during the pandemic to help reduce costs during low travel demand. Now, as airlines are seeing a resurgence in travel, they are having a challenging time restaffing.

Just this weekend, thousands of flights were canceled, many due to pilot shortages across the industry as about 2.4 million travelers flew over the holiday.

Sunday alone had 1,000 flights delayed and more than 700 flights canceled, according to FlightAware, with Saturday seeing 6,300 flights delayed and 859 canceled. Friday also saw a slew of cancelations at 1,100.

American isn’t alone in cutting airports, as United said it was ending service to a number of smaller cities late last year, and SkyWest Airlines cut 29 cities also due to the pilot shortage. Delta also dropped three small cities earlier this year, saying at the time it was a result of “ongoing travel demand impact from the pandemic.”

Islip is currently served by Southwest, Frontier and Breeze airlines, while Ithaca is served by Delta Connection and United Express, according to the Points Guy. Allegiant Air is the only airline serving Toledo.