US airlines, which are still reorganizing their crews after declining travel demand due to the COVID-19 pandemic, canceled more than 2,500 flights for the four-day Memorial Day, which traditionally marks the start of the summer travel season.
Airlines worldwide canceled more than 1,500 flights yesterday, Monday, according to available data (FlightAware) after the cancellation of 1,641 flights on Sunday. Yesterday, more than 400 US flights were canceled and 2,400 flights were delayed, according to flight tracking data on the same website.
Storms in Florida, New York and the Mid-Atlantic states have been a major cause of flight delays and cancellations this week, airlines said.
The airlines attributed the recent flight cancellations to weather, air traffic management, COVID-19 contamination incidents among employees, and other staff-related issues.
Airlines, meanwhile, are working to speed up staff recruitment to manage the estimated summer increase in travel demand. A total of 6.5 million airline passengers were checked by the US Transportation Security Administration during the first three days of the Memorial Day holiday, down 10% from the 2019 period. However, it is higher than the 2021 levels.
Delta Air Lines canceled about 700 flights for the reported four days according to FlightAware, including 134 flights for yesterday or about 4% of scheduled flights. In total for yesterday Delta made a delay of 9% of its flights.
Delta announced yesterday that it had been working on canceling flights over the weekend “at least 24 hours before departure, where possible.”
The airline announced that 94% of its passengers on Sunday were served by alternative flights within an average of ten hours from the initial time of departure.
On Thursday, Delta announced that it had cut some flights for Memorial Day weekend, but also for early August, in order to improve its operational functionality.
Heavy storms in Miami were a major factor in the cancellation of flights, but also for their delays, as announced by American Airlines. The airline canceled 119 flights on Monday, but also 74 on Sunday or about 2% of its scheduled flights. At the same time, 11% of its flights for Monday were delayed.
An increasing percentage of American flights are operated through the state of Florida. Overall, 45% of JetBlue flights land in Florida, while 40-50% of Southwest Airlines flights also land in Florida daily.
JetBlue Airways delayed 18% of its scheduled flights for yesterday. It had delayed 30% of its flights on Sunday, while canceling only 1% of its scheduled flights for yesterday.
Last month, JetBlue announced that it was reducing its summer flight schedule by more than 10%.
SOURCE: AMPE
Source: Capital
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