July Fourth holiday flights: Disruptions continue, United struggles

Flight delays and cancellations continued to plague thousands of National Day travelers on Friday, including united airlines Passengers are bearing the brunt of the problems.

Some of the most congested airports on the U.S. East Coast were hit by a series of thunderstorms over the weekend, sparking chaos. Some airline executives have blamed the FAA for exacerbating customer problems with a shortage of air traffic controllers.

The TSA expects to screen 17.7 million people from June 29 to July 5, with Friday’s peak at more than 2.8 million. That would set an all-time record for a single day of screenings and be one of the clearest signs of a strong recovery in air travel from the pandemic.

Airlines have faced political and public pressure to operate reliably after overly ambitious schedules and staff shortages exacerbated daily challenges such as severe weather. The difficulties come as travel demand rebounds from pandemic lows.

More storms and challenges, including wildfire smoke from Canada, are likely to plague airlines in the coming days, although the worst disturbances of this week have mostly subsided. (Of course, this is what the airline owes you if your flight is canceled or delayed.)

More than 42,000 flights operated by American Airlines were delayed and more than 7,900 were canceled from Saturday through Thursday, according to flight-tracking website FlightAware. More than 5% of U.S. flights have been cancelled, about four times the cancellation rate so far this year.

Passengers sprawled on airport floors, waiting for hours for flight information or new timetables. They also face long queues for customer service and lost luggage.

united airlines During those six days, half of the company’s mainline flights were delayed, with an average delay of 106 minutes, according to FlightAware. Another 19 percent of schedules were canceled.

On Friday, United canceled more than 200 flights, or 7% of its mainline schedule. Another 316 flights, or 11%, were delayed.Headquartered in New York JetBlue Airways Flights were canceled 9 times and delayed 171 times, 16% of the planned time.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg condemned United’s flight disruptions, saying the airline’s disruptions “have intensified but are moving in the right direction.”

United said late Thursday that it expects cancellations and delays to continue to improve into the holiday weekend. The airline has been offering waivers to affected travelers so they can rebook their trips without paying the fare difference.

“We are grateful to our customers who have experienced a lot of disruption over the past few days and to our teams who are working around the clock to care for them,” United said in a statement.

But unions have criticized the company for failing to take control of its operations, leaving workers unavailable and facing long wait times to talk to dispatchers or book hotels.

Ken Diaz, president of the United Chapter of the United Airlines Association, said: “United management’s failure to properly staff crew dispatchers, flight attendant support teams, etc. exacerbates these operational problems, resulting in passenger and flight attendants waiting for an answer for hours at a time,” the flight attendant said in a statement on Thursday. “Airlines effectively ‘lost’ crews in the system for days on end because of a critical glitch in their operations.”

Garth Thompson, a United captain and president of the Airline Pilots Association union, accused the company of not investing in the business.

“Flying in the summer can be challenging, but this summer will be unnecessarily memorable,” he said. “I’m really sorry for those who got caught in an unforced error by management.”

Both unions are negotiating contracts with the company and seeking compensation and schedule improvements.

United CEO Scott Kirby wrote to employees on Monday, saying some of the problems over the weekend stemmed from a shortage of air traffic controllers and said that when the FAA ) slashed arrivals and departures at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey, “the FAA let us down, frankly.” Major United Airlines hub.

The FAA warned of staffing shortages in the New York City area earlier this year, and some airlines agreed to reduce capacity to avoid overloading the system.

“This resulted in massive delays, cancellations, diversions, and misplacements of crew and aircraft,” Kirby wrote in a staff report seen by CNBC. Both were behind the eight ball, and that was further exacerbated by the FAA staffing shortage Sunday night.”

JetBlue also blamed the FAA for similar problems.

“We are working with the FAA to better understand what led to this week’s significant and unexpected flight,” JetBlue Chief Operating Officer Joanna Geraghty said in a memo to employees on Wednesday. Air traffic control restrictions affecting thousands of flights across airlines.” customers, and in many cases, blamed JetBlue for circumstances beyond our control.”