A shortage of retired pilots and pandemic cutbacks have forced Fort Worth-based American Airlines to park about 100 of its smaller regional jets, even amid heavy summer passenger demand.

“There’s an imbalance between supply and demand right now and it’s really within the ranks of regional carriers,” American Airlines CEO Robert Isom said Friday at the Bernstein Strategic investor conference. Decisions in New York. “We have probably 100 planes or almost 100 planes that are not productive right now, not flying.”

Isom’s comments come amid skyrocketing airfare prices as travelers are eager to get out after two years of pandemic restrictions and airlines scramble to return to pre-war flight levels. pandemic. Almost all airlines in the sector are facing similar problems with difficulties replacing pilots and other key workers, although several are forecasting record revenues.

Airlines would like to take advantage of higher ticket prices due to strong consumer demand. Airfare prices for summer travel are up about 48% from 2019, according to travel site Hopper. This more than offsets the increased fuel and labor costs. On Friday, American raised its revenue forecast for the second quarter, now expecting sales 11 to 13% higher than the same period in pre-pandemic 2019.

The 2022 summer travel season has seen airlines try to balance their own ability to run longer schedules against the risk of collapse if operations are stretched too thin. While carriers such as Delta, JetBlue and Southwest have cut flights to focus on reducing delays, American Airlines is offering a schedule about 20% larger than its next closest competitor at Delta.

The biggest constraint, Isom said, is how many pilots American Airlines and its regional carriers are able to hire. About 1,000 of the 15,000 U.S. pilots took early retirement during the COVID-19 pandemic. Coupled with a large number of pilots due to reach mandatory retirement age, it has left carriers like American with a shortage of key employees.

American filled this gap by hiring pilots from regional carriers, including its own from wholly-owned airlines such as Envoy and Piedmont. In turn, that leaves a shortage of pilots to fly the smaller 50- and 75-passenger jets.

“There are constraints in terms of aircraft, there are constraints around pilots from a mainline and training perspective,” Isom said.

American was able to offset some of the flight reductions by using larger regional jets and parking smaller models, Isom said.

While this helps carry more passengers, using larger planes also means fewer frequencies, especially to smaller destinations. Regional airlines provide 43% of the country’s flights. according to the Regional Airline Association, and two-thirds of the country’s airports are served only by regional carriers.

American and others increased regional pilot pay and added signing and retention bonuses to help students through flight school. Economic incentives from jobs that pay more than $200,000 a year should eventually attract more pilots, but it could take several years to get the number of pilots needed to properly staff airlines, Isom said.

“I see demand for travel,” Isom said. “I see an industry that has been more or less constrained and is now trying to pull itself together and is still dealing with those constraints.”