What’s behind the summer flight cancellations and delays?

better 30,000 flights in the US have been delayed or canceled this week, with some of the busiest travel days for the Fourth of July holiday still to come.

United Airlines was one of the worst-affected airlines, with 12.6% of flights canceled between Saturday and Monday, according to archived FlightAware data – 1,019 flights – and the situation even Even worse during the week. Tuesday saw 785 flights canceled (26%), while by 5:30 p.m. ET on Wednesday, United had cut 508 flights, or 18% of its schedule.

While JetBlue also struggled, with significant delays and 174 flights canceled on Tuesday (16%) and 92 flights canceled (9%) at the time of Wednesday’s announcement.

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American and Delta have been performing better in recent days, with cancellation rates in the 1-5% range in recent days, even though Delta has canceled 465 prime flights Sunday through Monday for a total of 6. ,9%.

Why is this happening?

That’s the question on the minds of many of the hundreds of thousands of visitors who have experienced disruption since Saturday.

Just when it looked like the disruption would start to ease, on Wednesday the number of cancellations and delays started to creep up again. As of Wednesday night, the US had nearly 7,800 flight delays and more than 2,200 cancellations, according to the flight-tracking site Flight knowledge.

Regardless of how passengers stranded on the ground trying to rebook after multiple cancellations, this time around, it’s not a systemic crisis at any carrier. any shipping.

Instead, it was the culmination of several problems: personnel problems, congested airspace and frequent summer thunderstorms conspired to derail flights across the eastern US. on full flights, and airlines have few backup options to offer affected passengers.

These flight disruptions began on Saturday during the storm shoot up throughout the Midwest and along the East Coast of the United States.

Hurricanes often occur in the summer, but they are often more unpredictable than blizzards that can hamper winter activities. In addition, when storms erupt in long lines, they can span hundreds of miles — blocking flight paths and reducing take-off and landing rates at many busy airports at once.

And that’s what happened over the weekend and into this week. Tuesday was particularly bad, with storms lingering across the east creating a kind of “stalemate” at LaGuardia Airport (LGA) as westbound and southbound routes were largely blocked.

With the ongoing shortage of air traffic controllers, the situation has reached critical levels.

Federal Aviation Administration warned about possible flight disruptions in congested New York City airspace this summer as flight schedules have increased to near pre-pandemic levels.

Then on Monday, United CEO Scott Kirby explode The FAA’s failure to prepare for frequent summer thunderstorms has disrupted flights at United’s hub at Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) and elsewhere throughout the Northeast.

In a memo obtained by TPG, Kirby said, “the weather we saw in the EWR was something the FAA could previously manage without severely impacting our operations and customers.”

Kirby says the FAA has reduced flight rates to Newark by 40 percent and departures by 75 percent – the reduction in capacity there has plunged the airport’s operations into chaos and has been exacerbated by the weather. stormy weather is happening.

Staff shortages and new conversations about the FAA’s old technology have become a top issue this year after the agency grant a rare nationwide stop in January because of a computer outage. Prior to January, the last time the FAA issued a nationwide cease-and-desist was during the September 11, 2001 attacks.

During the last week of disruption, a cable overheated at an FAA facility in Virginia keep procrastinating flights out of the Washington, DC area on Sunday, making matters worse.

Travel industry analyst Henry Harteveldt said the agency has struggled to market a career in air traffic control to the younger generation, posing a huge thorn in the side of the airline industry, which is already facing pressure quick recovery for summer travel time.

“Being an air traffic controller is not a career many young people think of as an option when they start to consider a career,” he said.

Another problem the FAA faces is its funding. Many people in the aviation industry expressed concern many times on FAA funding, with some arguing that airlines could not operate at 2019 levels if the FAA did not update its infrastructure.

“Appropriations granted are rarely what the agency asks for,” says Harteveldt. “In addition to paying its air traffic controllers, the FAA must continue to invest in so-called Nextgen, or next-generation air traffic control systems, backend systems and more.”

In addition to the FAA, personnel problems in airlines are also problematic.

Lots of stores report that at United Airlines – the airline most affected by disruptions due to its large hub in Newark – crew schedules took more than three hours, leaving many crew members waiting for assignments. United is now paying three times more for flight attendants working more flights through July 6 CNBC.

The United Flight Attendants Association-CWA branch, which has brought attention to the matter, pointed to two public memos issued to members of the association, offering advice to flight attendants. about managing their schedules and reminding them of airline incentives for voluntarily taking additional trips.

The union cited “the current state of the airline is unacceptable” in the memos, using typical advocacy language,” but it nevertheless noted that a series of events led to the Flight cancellation is in fact a perfect storm.

The AFA wrote: “While we continue to urge management to do all they can to assist Flight Attendants returning to base, we also recognize that weather events preclude The challenge is, in some cases, unexpected and beyond the control of the company.”

Two United insiders who spoke to TPG on condition of anonymity described the airline’s struggles as akin to “the death of 1,000 cuts”. Usually, minor or widespread operational failures at a few hubs – but mainly Newark – are tailored to make the airline’s recovery from hurricanes and air traffic control shortages even worse. more difficult, they said.

Despite the ongoing problems on Wednesday, United said things are starting to turn and hope for a full recovery by the weekend of July 4.

The Chicago-based carrier said: “Everything went smoothly as our pilots maneuvered the aircraft, contact center teams worked overtime to take care of our customers. and our airport customer service agents work tirelessly to deliver luggage and board flights.” in a statement. The airline did not immediately address questions posed by TPG regarding the impact on its operations compared with other carriers in the New York area.

United added that it was able to cancel fewer seats on Wednesdays than in previous days and reduce the baggage backlog at Newark by 30 percent.