More than 1,000 flights were canceled on Saturday morning, according to the flight tracking website FlightAware, after 2,300 cancellations on Friday. Delta Air Lines (DAL) was hardest hit by the cancellation, with more than 230 flights, or 8% of operations, canceled on Saturday. Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta, where Delta is headquartered and has its largest hub, has been hit hard by travel difficulties.
The carrier blamed Saturday’s cancellation of bad weather and “air traffic control actions” on Friday, saying it was trying to cancel flights at least 24 hours in advance.
United canceled 23 flights and JetBlue canceled 10 on Saturday, about 1% of carriers’ operations
On Thursday, Delta announced it was reducing its summer flight schedule ahead of Remembrance Day weekend. From July 1 to August 7, the airline said it would cut about 100 daily flights, mostly to the United States and Latin America.
“More than ever in our history, the various factors that currently affect our work – weather and air traffic control, supplier staff, increased number of COVID cases, contributing to higher-than-planned unplanned absences in some workgroups – lead to an operation that does not consistently meet the standards that Delta has set for the industry in recent years, “said Alison Ausband, CEO of Customer Service, in an online publication.
The airlines also preventively canceled nearly 200 flights on Monday. So far, Delta is directing 75.
Delta said in a statement that it will issue a travel exemption for those affected by bad weather in the southeast and northeast this weekend. Affected airports, which include areas of New York and Washington, are listed on the company’s website.
Delta said it expects about 2.5 million customers during the holiday weekend – an increase of a quarter over last year. The AAA estimates 3 million Americans flying through the air on Remembrance Day weekend.
Separately, JetBlue said it would cut its summer schedule by 8% to 10%. Alaska Airlines cut its schedule by about 2% by June to match “pilot capacity”.
– CNN’s Marnie Hunter contributed to this report.
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