On the July Fourth weekend, airports in the U.S were filled with thousands of people were crowded together, waiting for their delayed flights or scheduling new flights because their original flights were canceled. 2,490,490 passengers, a high number similar to the number of passengers flying before the pandemic, were let into the airport only to witness their flights be delayed or canceled.
According to the flight tracker Flight Aware, 464 flights from, to, and in the U.S. were called off and more than 6,000 were postponed on July 1. That is 28.8% of the total number of flights scheduled that day.
Saturday and Sunday both had 5,893 delayed flights and 655 canceled flights.
July Fourth was not the only holiday that included a lot of delays and cancellations. On the weekend of Juneteenth and Father’s Day, there were also many flight delays and cancellations.
The reason for these problems is the lack of staff. During the pandemic, there were around 50,000 employees who quit working with airlines. As a result, many airlines do not have enough pilots to fly all the planned flights this summer, leading to thousands of canceled flights.
A union of the ramp workers of the airline Southwest said that there are currently few staff members available, making the workers fatigued.
Randolph Barnes, president of TWU Local 555, said, “Southwest’s horrendous treatment of its ramp workers is completely unacceptable, and we believe much of it is due to poor planning by its executives.”
To help smooth over airline issues, The Federal Aviation Administration said that they are adding different paths for pilots to take, putting more air traffic controllers in busy places, and increasing overtime for airline employees.
But in the meantime, Buttigieg said on Twitter, “Airlines offer miles as compensation for some travel issues, and you can often negotiate on this. That’s between you and the airline. But you are entitled to cash refunds for canceled flights – that’s a requirement that we will continue to enforce.”
Luckily for travelers though, a spokeswoman of FlightAware, Kathleen Bangs, has made a statement that she believes the airlines will stabilize their flights by this year’s fall, now that they are taking measures to not schedule as many flights and to hire more employees.
Source: NBC news: Thousands of flights delayed and canceled on busy July Fourth travel weekend. The Washington Post: Holiday travelers see fewer flight cancellations, still some headaches
According to the flight tracker Flight Aware, 464 flights from, to, and in the U.S. were called off and more than 6,000 were postponed on July 1. That is 28.8% of the total number of flights scheduled that day.
Saturday and Sunday both had 5,893 delayed flights and 655 canceled flights.
July Fourth was not the only holiday that included a lot of delays and cancellations. On the weekend of Juneteenth and Father’s Day, there were also many flight delays and cancellations.
The reason for these problems is the lack of staff. During the pandemic, there were around 50,000 employees who quit working with airlines. As a result, many airlines do not have enough pilots to fly all the planned flights this summer, leading to thousands of canceled flights.
A union of the ramp workers of the airline Southwest said that there are currently few staff members available, making the workers fatigued.
Randolph Barnes, president of TWU Local 555, said, “Southwest’s horrendous treatment of its ramp workers is completely unacceptable, and we believe much of it is due to poor planning by its executives.”
To help smooth over airline issues, The Federal Aviation Administration said that they are adding different paths for pilots to take, putting more air traffic controllers in busy places, and increasing overtime for airline employees.
But in the meantime, Buttigieg said on Twitter, “Airlines offer miles as compensation for some travel issues, and you can often negotiate on this. That’s between you and the airline. But you are entitled to cash refunds for canceled flights – that’s a requirement that we will continue to enforce.”
Luckily for travelers though, a spokeswoman of FlightAware, Kathleen Bangs, has made a statement that she believes the airlines will stabilize their flights by this year’s fall, now that they are taking measures to not schedule as many flights and to hire more employees.
Source: NBC news: Thousands of flights delayed and canceled on busy July Fourth travel weekend. The Washington Post: Holiday travelers see fewer flight cancellations, still some headaches
