Apr. 11—Alaska Airlines continued to post cancellations Monday, though the airline said passengers were being warned and rebooked well before their flights.

A shortage of pilots prompted Alaska, Seattle-Tacoma International Airport's largest carrier, to cut its spring schedule by 2% last week. Twenty flights through Sea-Tac had been canceled by Monday afternoon, according to FlightAware.com, with additional cancellations expected Tuesday and Wednesday.

The cancellations, though, were of a different sort than those earlier in April that saw passengers stuck and unable to reach the airline's customer service desk.

"Guests are being notified in advance and they're being reaccommodated on other flights if their itinerary is impacted by crew-related cancellations," said Alexa Rudin, Alaska Airlines managing director for communications. Rudin said customers whose flights have been canceled should call a custom phone number included in the email notifying them of the cancellation.

Rudin noted that flights cut as part of the 2% schedule reduction will "continue to show up as cancellations until the new schedule is fully loaded into our system at the end of this week."

Staffing shortages have been largely to blame for hundreds of cancellations that have delayed or stranded tens of thousands of passengers. In the days after the cancellation run began April 1, some passengers reported 10-hour waits to reach the airline's customer service desk.

Alaska and the union representing its pilots have been stalled on a new contract for three years. The dispute is the subject of federal mediation.

This story includes information from Seattle Times archives.

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