Millions of Americans getting stranded across US as airlines delay or cancel flights from bad weather & pilot shortages
MILLIONS of Americans are being stranded at airports after an increase in significant flight delays and last-minute cancellations due to bad weather and staff shortages.
The easing of and increase in vaccinations has resulted in a stampede to airports, with a summer surge hitting its peak on July 4 weekend.
According to the Transportation Security Administration, more than 10million travelers flew over the holiday weekend.
While this represents only about 83 percent of the travelers from the same weekend in 2019, it's a marked increase from July 2020.
The industry bottomed out as strict lockdowns came into effect at the start of the pandemic, with less than 100,000 people flying a day in April 2020.
passengers have increased dramatically from about 700,000 a day in early February to two million a day in July.
Yet many have found the return to air travel a nightmare with , sudden changes in routes, and hours on hold with customer service.
According to data from FlightAware, JetBlue delayed 51 percent of its flights between July 1 and July 6.
Southwest delayed 39 percent and American Airlines delayed 34 percent of flights, the data adds.
VACATION DAYS LOST
Angered passenger Laura Kinney told The Sun that she was on the phone with JetBlue customer service for three hours before being disconnected after her flight from JFK to Sarasota was canceled at the last minute and she was transferred to a Newark to Tampa flight.
Just days later, another of her flights was completely canceled, she said after she waited one hour and 15 minutes to board with her seven-year-old daughter.
"I received an automated call that my new flight was on the 20th. I had an important event to go to so it was important for me to get there on the 19th," Kinney explained.
"I stood on line at the customer service desk for two hours asking what they could do.
"They basically said there was nothing they could do," she added.
"No offers for any sort of compensation."
Kinney branded her experience with the airline “ridiculous.”
"I don’t think I’ll be flying with them again after my trip back home," she said.
"Hopefully that won’t be canceled!"
The social media accounts of many of the major US airlines are packed with similar complaints from angry travelers publicly shaming carriers for the disruption to their plans.
Others have complained of poor and dirty conditions on planes that are not being cleaned despite the pandemic.
The delays come just months after Congress gave the industry $54billion so airlines could retain their employees and handle the return of passengers after the pandemic.
AIRLINE JOB LOSSES
A condition of the funding was that airlines could not furlough workers but they have found workarounds by persuading tens of thousands of employees to take voluntary buyouts, early retirement, or long-term leave to cut costs.
There were also 35,000 airline jobs lost last fall when the aid from Congress briefly expired.
While industry experts have said that the majority of flights canceled in the last few weeks have been a result of weather conditions, they have also blamed a backlog in training pilots and a shortage in airport employees that have come as a result of this tactic.
“We’re seeing a pilot training shortage,” Dennis Tajer, communications committee chairman at the Allied Pilots Association, told .
“The pilots are there, but their hands are tied because they aren’t fully trained and they can’t fly yet.”
“You can’t operate a plane without somebody to fly it, and you can’t operate a plane if you can’t service it,” Bryan Del Monte, president of the Aviation Agency, also told .
Senator Maria Cantwell last week called on six airlines to explain the delays and why there could be staff shortages after the large investment of federal funding.
She sent letters to the CEOs of American, Southwest, Delta, JetBlue, Republic, and Allegiant.
AIRLINES HIT BACK
Cantwell accused the airlines of failing “to meet the intent of taxpayer funding and prepare for the surge in travel that we are now witnessing.”
Several of the major airlines have refuted claims that there is an increased number of delays and cancellations in the last few months as they announce attempts to bump up staffing numbers.
Last week, American Airlines announced that it will recall 3,300 flight attendants from long-term leave and hire 800 more before the end of the year.
Delta also announced that it will hire 5,000 workers this year.
However, some airlines have also hit back at competitors and contested that they are not seeing the same problems caused by staffing shortages.
“Here at United, we have not been seeing these issues due to the fact that we have been planning for this moment for more than a year,” a spokesperson from United Airlines told The Sun.
“Since the earliest days of the pandemic, at United, we have matched our schedule to demand with a high level of coordination and communication between our network planning teams and operating groups.”
Caring for our customers by providing a safe, reliable travel experience is always our top priority.
American Airlines
A spokesperson from Delta echoed the statement claiming “we are not seeing what some of our competitors are reportedly doing due to staffing pressure.”
“There is no impact to our schedules or operations for our customers,” they added.
“Our people are working hard to provide a safe, reliable, and enjoyable flight experience as more and more of our customers return to travel this summer.”
American Airlines said that it had recently seen improvements to its operation after adjusting its scheduling due to the increase in delays of its flights.
The airline previously said that “unprecedented weather” combined with labor shortages with vendors had caused the issue.
“Caring for our customers by providing a safe, reliable travel experience is always our top priority,” a spokesperson said.
“Last month, we took action to build in additional resilience and certainty to our operation by adjusting some of our scheduled flying through mid-July.
“As a result, we immediately saw improvement in our July operation — including over the busy July 4 holiday weekend — and that momentum has continued.”
INCREASE IN PASSENGERS
American Airlines noted the marked increase in passengers in the past month in particular.
Last Friday, it carried 625,537 customers, the highest number of the summer so far and highest since late February 2020.
The airline also contested the number of cancelations cited by FlightAware.
It said that so far in July, less than two percent of its flights had been canceled and of those called off, 70 percent had been as a result of the weather.
JetBlue and Southwest Airlines did not respond to a request for comment.
However, Southwest, one of the hardest hit with delays, told The Associated Press last week that it will use federal funding to continue to fly to all the airports it served before the pandemic.
It added that recent delays were due to thunderstorms and technology “challenges.”
The federal aid for the industry has now been extended through to September 30.
Yet some experts are warning passengers to expect disruptions to continue as the industry finds its feet again.
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“It’s going to be uncertain,” Mike Boyd, an aviation analyst with Boyd Group International, told the Post.
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Travelers are advised to protect themselves by booking their flights with potential cancellations in mind by finding tickets with a flexible fare that will allow for a free date or destination change.
It is also advised to count in some buffer time, if possible, for traveling for an event.