Travellers are getting hit with delays at US airports again early on Wednesday, an ominous sign heading into the long July 4 holiday weekend, which is shaping up as the biggest test yet for airlines that are struggling to keep up with surging numbers of passengers. As of early morning, more than 900 flights have been delayed in the US, according to FlightAware. Cancellations topped more than 670 flights.
The delays on Tuesday were due to the thunderstorms that hit Northeast. About 6,500 flights were delayed and about 1,900 cancelled due to this.
Cancellations and delays were most severe along the East Coast early and were growing worse rapidly. Disruptions are expected to spread West.
At various times, the Federal Aviation Administration held up flights bound for LaGuardia Airport in New York and Reagan Washington National and Baltimore-Washington airports near the nation’s capital.
United Airlines, with a major hub in Newark, New Jersey, cancelled about 500 flights or 18 per cent of its schedule, and JetBlue cancelled 16 per cent of its flights, according to FlightAware.
Storm before the storm
According to the Transportation Security Administration, travel has picked up steadily every year since bottoming out during the pandemic and on Tuesday, the number of people flying neared 2.4 million, up 11 per cent from last year on the same day.
Travel is expected to peak on Thursday with more than 52,500 total flights, likely the biggest travel day of the holiday period.
People whose travel plans were disrupted took to social media to vent against the airlines. Some swore they would never fly again on whichever airline had done them wrong.
If large numbers of passengers are stranded or delayed this weekend, expect federal officials and the airlines to blame each other for the mess.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, whose department includes the FAA, has been beating up on the airlines for more than a year. He has accused them of failing to live up to reasonable standards of customer service and suggested that they are scheduling more flights than they can handle.
The airlines are punching back.
United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby blamed a shortage of federal air traffic controllers for massive disruptions last weekend at its Newark hub.
“We estimate that over 150,000 customers on United alone were impacted this weekend because of FAA staffing issues and their ability to manage traffic,” Kirby wrote in a memo to employees Tuesday night.
United could be contributing to its struggles. The Association of Flight Attendants, which represents the airline’s cabin crews, said it complained about wait times of more than three hours for workers who called a crew scheduling centre that had “limited telephone lines and personnel”. The union told flight attendants near the end of their shifts to tell supervisors and find a hotel room.
The FAA has admitted that it is understaffed at key facilities including one in the New York City region. It is training about 3,000 new air traffic controllers, but most of them won’t be ready anytime soon. Last week, the Transportation Department’s inspector general said in a report that the FAA has made only “limited efforts” to adequately staff critical air traffic control centres and lacks a plan to tackle the problem.
Source: The Economic Times
