NATIONWIDE FLIGHT CANCELLATIONS OVER MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND CAUSE SUMMER FLIGHT REDUCTIONS
Memorial Day weekend was filled with flight cancellations and delays due to severe weather conditions across the United States.
According to the National Weather Service, nearly 14,000 flights were canceled nationwide over the four-day holiday weekend. On Friday, 2,300 cancellations. On Saturday, 1,500 flights were canceled, followed by 1,641 on Sunday.
Delta Airlines blamed bad weather for causing widespread disruption to their operations through Monday morning. However, they also said that some delays and cancellations were caused due to air traffic controllers on Friday as a safety measure 24 hours in advance. Delta ended up having over 500 domestic and international flights canceled on Saturday.
According to FlightAware, Delta canceled 121 of its scheduled flights on Monday, which is equivalent to 4% of its overall operations. At the same time, American Airlines had to cancel 3 percent of its operations, which equated to 117 flights.
The Associated Press reported that Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, where Delta maintains its headquarters and operates its largest hub, had 5% of all flights canceled and 7% of flights delayed.
Several flights were canceled two days after Delta decided to decrease its services by about 100 daily departures between July 1 and August 7.
“More than any time in our history, the various factors currently impacting our operation — weather and air traffic control, vendor staffing, increased COVID case rates contributing to higher-than-planned unscheduled absences in some workgroups — are resulting in an operation that isn’t consistently up to the standards Delta has set for the industry in recent years,” said Delta’s Chief Customer Experience Officer Allison Ausband in the post.”
JetBlue stated that it would reduce its summer schedule by between 8 and 10 percent in a separate announcement. Through June, Alaska Airlines has decided to cut its’ schedule by approximately 2 percent to match “pilot capacity.”
Airlines are urging passengers to check their flight status before heading to the airport, as there is still potential for more cancellations in the coming days. Travelers are advised to arrive at least three hours early for domestic flights and four hours early for international flights.
