The Memorial Day holiday weekend is proving a messy one for many airlines, with carrier cancelling thousands of flights worldwide, including more than 500 in the U.S. on Sunday.
On Monday, more than 1,300 flights had been canceled as of 11:42 a.m. Eastern time, according to flight tracking website FlightAware. That followed roughly 1,640 cancellations on Sunday, 1,500 on Saturday and 2,300 on Friday. Roughly 340 of Monday’s early cancellations involved aircraft scheduled to fly to or from U.S. cities.
Delta Air Lines canceled the most flights among major U.S. airlines, scratching 123 flights on Monday, or 4% of its operations, according to FlightAware. The carrier was forced to cancel more than 400 flights on Saturday and Sunday.
Saturday’s cancellations were due to bad weather and “air traffic control actions,” Atlanta-based Delta said in an email to The Associated Press, noting it’s trying to cancel flights at least 24 hours in advance of the Memorial Day weekend. Delta told CBS News that “around 90%” of its customers who had a cancelled flight Sunday were rebooked on a flight “later in the day.”
Delta announced on its website on Thursday that from July 1 to Aug. 7, it would reduce service by about 100 daily departures, primarily in parts of the U.S. and Latin America that Delta frequently serves.
“More than any time in our history, the various factors currently impacting our operation — weather and air traffic control, vendor staffing, increased COVID case rates contributing to higher-than-planned unscheduled absences in some work groups — are resulting in an operation that isn’t consistently up to the standards Delta has set for the industry in recent years,” said Delta’s Chief Customer Experience Officer Allison Ausband in a post.
Among other U.S. carriers, American Airlines had cancelled 119 flights, or 3% of its operations, as of 11:42 a.m. EDT, according to FlightAware.
David Zalubowski / AP
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