It has been a rough start for the summer travel season as airlines yesterday cancelled more than 1,000 flights and another 3,400 were delayed. The disruptions are large because of the weather on the east coast. At Reagan national airport a lot of people are still stranded and are hoping that they do not experience what they had yesterday.
Airlines are still reeling from that bad weather yesterday. Checking flight awareness, more than 1,400 cancellations in total nationwide just yesterday. The cancellations are already piling up today, more than 500 today so far.
Since the epidemic, airlines have shrunk significantly, which makes poor weather affect them more severely. There may be more flight cancellations this summer.
It will be an expensive summer of travel stress at airports worldwide with airlines struggling with staffing shortages and schedule meltdowns. The U.S.A cancelled more than 5,400 flights.
New analysis from travel site hopper says flight cancellations have jumped 34% in the last month, and domestic ticket prices are up, too, by 18% since 2019, even still passengers are
packing planes, last weekend the TSA screened more people at airports nationwide than any
weekend since the start of the pandemic.
“travellers are willing to pay more and they’re willing to face potential disruptions because they really want to go on these trips that they’ve put off in cases for two years.” — Hayley Berg, Lead Economist, Hopper
Airline CEOs lobbied congress for $50 billion in pandemic aid to keep workers on the job, even still airlines got smaller, offering employees early out and retirement packages.
Airline consumer advocate bill McGee says airlines are not keeping up their end of the deal.
southwest and delta pilots have picketed to say they are overworked. Airlines insist they are hiring hundreds of new workers each month while dealing with storms and air traffic control issues.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has told airline CEOs to stress test their schedules and add customer service staff with July 4th travel on the horizon.AAA forecasts that 47.9 million Americans will travel for the holiday but a shrinking share will take to the skies.
“you can’t ignore we have had six months of constant stories of delays, cancellations, bad weather, long lines, frustration and somebody may decide I think it’s easier for me just to hop
in the car and go this year.” — Andy Gross, AAA spokesman
United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby put some of the blame for cancellations back on the federal government. He says that the FAA needs to properly staff up air traffic controllers to alleviate some delays. The FAA insists it is not an issue and is moving controllers around to hot spots like Florida.