The Independence Day weekend was a busy one, especially for air travel. The number of passengers that passed through airport security was 2,490,490 people. That was the highest since the pandemic began (or more specifically, February 11, 2020), when around 2.5 million people passed through airport security. This coincided with many flight cancellations and delay amidst a record shortage of workers in the U.S. The cancellation of a large number of flights comes in the midst of a staffing shortage across all sectors of the workforce in the U.S, and most crucially of all for the aviation industry, a pilot shortage. Planes cannot fly without a pilot, and it takes a lot of time to train a pilot, while the other staff on the airplane do not need that level of training. Many of the airlines had to cancel or delay thousands of flights during the summer going in, out, and around the country. On Friday, 464 flights were cancelled, as well as 6,600 flights being delayed, which in total was 28.8% of all scheduled flights that day, and on Saturday, 655 flights were cancelled and 5,893 delay, followed by 200 cancelled flights and 930 flights delayed on Sunday morning. These cancellations also follow a massive amount of flight delays and cancellations during the Juneteenth and Father’s Day weekend.

“Airlines offer miles as compensation for some travel issues, and you can often negotiate on this. That’s between you and the airline,” Pete Buttigieg, the transportation secretary tweeted. “But you are entitled to cash refunds for canceled flights — that’s a requirement that we will continue to enforce.”

Original article: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/record-july-4th-travel-weekend-thousands-flights-delayed-cancelled-rcna36497