By: Michael Day
Travelers are swarming airports this Fourth of July weekend but face thousands of flight delays and cancellations.
The Transportation Security Administration scanned 2.5 million passengers at airport security checkpoints on Friday. This is the most traffic since February 11th, 2020, when it scanned more than 2.5 million.
On the same day, over 450 international flights were canceled, while over 6000 were delayed. That was almost 30% of all scheduled flights overall. Sunday morning was no better, with 930 flights delayed and 200 canceled.
Shortages of staff and a lack of pilots, in particular, were the result of the thousands of canceled and delayed flights this weekend. Airliners have pushed the blame on understaffing at the Federal Aviation Administration for flight delays and cancellations.
Many have been asking if it is appropriate to seek travel destinations in this crisis. Many are planning to oversee the situation through this Fourth of July weekend as well as the rest of the summer in order to determine whether they should travel or not. Transportation Secretary, Pete Buttigieg, said that customers can claim refunds for canceled flights. Buttigieg stated in a tweet, “When deciding whether to accept miles, it’s helpful to know their value, which varies, but often is estimated at 1 to 1.5 cents per mile.” He gave an example of his own canceled flight which he got a $112 refund.
FlightAware spokeswoman Kathleen Bangs said that she expects the wave of cancellations to drop as airlines reduce their flights and focus on hiring more pilots and other workers.