Last weekend, furious passengers stormed the customer service kiosk, demanding to be put on a flight. Friday July 1, 2022, TSA screened 2.49 million passengers at airport security checkpoints, the highest volume since pre-pandemic. At the same time, almost 500 US flights were canceled and over 6,600 delayed. As people frantically tried to salvage their travel plans for Fourth of July weekend, many wondered how this situation could happen.
Heading into this summer vacation season, travel trends are reaching pre-covid levels and airlines no longer have the capacity to service so many flights. For months, airlines have been facing pilot and staffing shortages. Southwest Airlines has cut almost 20,000 flights and Delta has been canceling 100 flights per day in the US and Latin America.
US airlines look to hire at least 12,000 pilots this year. Unfortunately, it can take up to five years and hundreds of thousands of dollars to train new carrier pilots and normally it takes at least four months to replace a single pilot. Smaller airlines especially are struggling to bring in new pilots after losing up to 5% of their pilots to larger regional carriers.
However, pilot unions argue that there is no shortage. According to the Federal Aviation Administration, nearly 8,000 new commercial pilots have been certified in the last year, exceeding recent years. Instead, they dispute that airlines want to cut costs by claiming that there is a lack of available pilots, and thus lowering the qualification and safety regulations to certify pilots. “The United States has more than enough qualified pilots now,” a representative from the Air Line Pilots Association adds.
Whether the flight cancelations are due to pilot shortages or corporate greed, US airlines have still canceled over 21,000 flights since Memorial Day weekend and project consistent rates of cancelation into the fall. As a traveler this means you may continue to hear about situations similar to July Fourth weekend or possibly even be a part of one.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/record-july-4th-travel-weekend-thousands-flights-delayed-cancelled-rcna36497
Heading into this summer vacation season, travel trends are reaching pre-covid levels and airlines no longer have the capacity to service so many flights. For months, airlines have been facing pilot and staffing shortages. Southwest Airlines has cut almost 20,000 flights and Delta has been canceling 100 flights per day in the US and Latin America.
US airlines look to hire at least 12,000 pilots this year. Unfortunately, it can take up to five years and hundreds of thousands of dollars to train new carrier pilots and normally it takes at least four months to replace a single pilot. Smaller airlines especially are struggling to bring in new pilots after losing up to 5% of their pilots to larger regional carriers.
However, pilot unions argue that there is no shortage. According to the Federal Aviation Administration, nearly 8,000 new commercial pilots have been certified in the last year, exceeding recent years. Instead, they dispute that airlines want to cut costs by claiming that there is a lack of available pilots, and thus lowering the qualification and safety regulations to certify pilots. “The United States has more than enough qualified pilots now,” a representative from the Air Line Pilots Association adds.
Whether the flight cancelations are due to pilot shortages or corporate greed, US airlines have still canceled over 21,000 flights since Memorial Day weekend and project consistent rates of cancelation into the fall. As a traveler this means you may continue to hear about situations similar to July Fourth weekend or possibly even be a part of one.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/record-july-4th-travel-weekend-thousands-flights-delayed-cancelled-rcna36497
