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US air travellers have suffered tens of thousands of delayed and cancelled flights this week, prompting finger-pointing between airlines and their regulator and unnerving those with trips scheduled over the busy Independence Day holiday.
Thunderstorms triggered many of the delays among carriers already trying to meet strong demand with stretched passenger capacity. But the chief executive of United Airlines blamed the Federal Aviation Administration, saying the agency “failed us”.
More than 8,200 flights have been cancelled and nearly 46,000 delayed in the US over the past week, according to the FlightAware website. The disruptions were an unpleasant reminder of cancellations and delays that were widespread last summer.
Airline executives promised that this season would be different, with more staff and schedules trimmed to a manageable size. Travel has increased before Independence Day on July 4, with the number of flights predicted to have peaked on Thursday at nearly 53,000.
The FAA imposed a ground delay on Thursday afternoon at Chicago’s O’Hare airport, one of the country’s busiest hubs, as a thunderstorm approached the city. More storms were forecast along the east coast on Sunday and Monday, while many US cities continued to be bathed in smoke from Canadian wildfires, which snarled some flights earlier this month.
Jared King, owner of New Mexico-based travel agency and consulting firm Yeego Connect, said he is double- and triple-checking itineraries for clients worried their upcoming flights could be affected.
“They’re a little on edge, having read the news about the massive delays and cancellations,” he said.
Scott Kirby, United’s CEO, criticised the FAA for restricting arrivals and departures during poor weather last Saturday at Newark airport, saying the agency “has historically been able to manage” in similar conditions. The decision was “almost certainly a reflection of understaffing/lower experience at the FAA”, he said.
“It led to massive delays, cancellations, diversions, as well as crews and aircraft out of position,” he said in a memo to employees. “That put everyone behind the eight ball when weather actually did hit on Sunday . . . We estimate that over 150,000 customers on United alone were impacted this weekend.”
Problems have not been limited to the US. The rate of cancellations among 20 of Europe’s busiest airlines hit 2.6 per cent last week, or 1,852 flights, a period when parts of the continent had storms following hot weather.
Bad weather typically leads to knock-on air traffic control delays, particularly because the skies across Europe are more congested than normal this summer, with about a fifth of the region’s airspace closed because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
In the US, the FAA said staffing constraints did not contribute to disruptions through Wednesday, and it would “always collaborate with anyone seriously willing to join us to solve a problem”.
United’s pilot union, which is negotiating a new contract with the airline, said Kirby was “trying to deflect blame” and airline executives’ “poor planning” caused the flight delays.
United on Thursday continued to be the most-affected airline, with 15 per cent of flights cancelled and more than a third delayed. The carrier said it expected disruptions to decline over the course of the holiday weekend.
If forecast storms along the US east coast come to pass, “that could make life tough” for air travellers, said industry analyst Brett Snyder, who runs the website ‘the Cranky Flier’.
“That’s the problem with summer storms,” he said. “You just never know how, where and when they’ll actually form.”