American Airlines Reverses Itself on Pilot Coronavirus Leave (1)

American Airlines is planning to offer leaves of absence to a total of 1,474 pilots in April, the airline said Wednesday afternoon, including 600 who fly Airbus 320s and Boeing 737s.

The airline said earlier the same day that it couldn’t offer leave in April to that group of pilots, after initially saying that as many as 1,200 A320 and B737 pilots would be eligible for leave this month as a response to the novel coronavirus crisis.

“The processing of this award has certainly created uncertainty and confusion,” a memo to the pilots from Chip Long, managing director of flight ...