Passengers in line pass through the northern checkpoint at the main terminal of Denver International Airport, Thursday, May 26, 2022, in Denver. David Zalubowski / Associated Press
Airline travelers are not only facing a shock of stickers this weekend on Remembrance Day, the start of the summer travel season. They also deal with a bunch of canceled flights.
More than 1,500 flights were canceled at 9:50 p.m. EDT on Saturday, according to the flight tracking website FlightAware. This followed more than 2,300 cancellations on Friday.
Delta Air Lines suffered the most among US airlines with more than 250 flights, or 9 percent of operations eliminated on Saturday. Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta, where Delta is based and has its largest hub, had major travel delays. On Saturday, 5 percent of flights there were canceled and 16 percent were delayed.
Delta said in an email to the Associated Press that Saturday’s cancellations were due to bad weather and “air traffic control actions”, noting that it was trying to cancel flights at least 24 hours before this Remembrance Day weekend.
Delta announced on its website on Thursday that it will reduce the service by about 100 daily departures from July 1 to August 7, mainly in parts of the United States and Latin America that Delta frequently serves.
“More than ever in our history, the various factors that currently affect our business – weather and air traffic control, supplier staff, increased number of COVID-19 cases, contributing to higher-than-planned unplanned absences in some working groups, they lead to an operation that does not consistently meet the standards that Delta has set for the industry in recent years, ”said Alison Ausband, Delta’s Chief Customer Service Officer.
Airlines and tourist destinations are expecting monstrous crowds this summer as travel restrictions ease and pandemic fatigue overcomes the continuing fear of COVID-19 infection while traveling.
Many forecasters believe that the number of passengers will coincide or even exceed the levels in the good old days before the pandemic. However, airlines have thousands fewer employees than in 2019, and this has sometimes contributed to the widespread cancellation of flights.
People who are only now booking a trip for the summer are shocked by the sticker.
Domestic airline prices for the summer averaged more than $ 400 for a return trip, 24% higher than this time in 2019, before the pandemic, and a steady 45% higher than a year ago, according to the data company. for travel Hopper.
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