United States airlines, which are “still rebuilding flight crews after the COVID-19 pandemic travel slowdown,” canceled more than 2,500 flights over the Memorial Day weekend, Reuters reported.
“Airlines worldwide canceled more than 1,500 flights on Monday, according to FlightAware, after cancelling 1,642 on Sunday. On Monday, there were about 400 U.S. flights canceled and 2,400 delayed, the flight tracking website said,” according to the report. “Thunderstorms in Florida, New York and the mid-Atlantic were a factor in this weekend’s flight delays and cancellations, airlines said.”
Many cancellations were blamed on weather and air traffic control, as well as employee coronavirus cases and “other staffing issues.” Airlines have thousands fewer employees than they did in 2019, and that has at times contributed to widespread flight cancellations, the Associated Press reported.
Delta Air Lines reportedly canceled roughly 700 flights in four days, Reuters found, citing data from FlightAware. American Airlines credited a severe thunderstorm in Miami for flight cancellations and delays.
“The airline canceled 119 flights on Monday and 74 on Sunday, or about 2% of scheduled trips. It also delayed 11% of flights on Monday,” according to the report.
JetBlue delayed 30 percent of its flights on Sunday and 18 percent on Monday, though it only canceled one percent on Monday.
Records showed that the U.S. Transportation Security Administration screened 6.5 million travelers during the first three days of the holiday weekend, which is above 2021 levels but 10 percent lower than the same time frame in 2019.
Extensive flight delays have become an unwelcome trend in the past two years, with each holiday season bringing with it the expectation of bungled travel plans. This past Christmas, for example, airlines canceled more than 1,300 United States flights and delayed nearly 6,800, according to FlightAware.
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