'Airmageddon': Airlines Struggle To Meet July 4th Demands While Hundreds Of Flights Cancelled

By Gil Cohen | Sunday, 03 July 2022 05:15 AM
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'Airmageddon': Airlines Struggle To Meet July 4th Demands While Hundreds Of Flights Cancelled

Airlines that have poorly stumbled over the last two holidays are facing their most significant test yet of whether they can handle big crowds when July Fourth travelers mob the country's airports this weekend - and the answer seems to be no.

Problems were popping up well before the weekend, with many disruptions caused by thunderstorms that slowed air traffic. But as Saturday came it was apparent that weather was not the only problem facing air travel - from a work slow down from Delta pilots to incomplete flight crews caused hundreds of flights to be cancelled and thousands delayed.

American Airlines canceled 8% of its flights on Tuesday and Wednesday, and United Airlines cleaned 4% of its schedule on both days, according to FlightAware.

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Holiday revelers preparing to drive face their own set of challenges, including high gasoline prices. The nationwide average has reduced since hitting a record $5.02 in mid-June to $4.86 a gallon on Thursday, according to AAA, which expects prices to proceed to ease because of rising gasoline inventories.

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Americans are driving a bit less. Gas demand last week was down roughly 3% from the same week last June, according to government figures. In a Quinnipiac University survey in June, 40% of those polled announced gas prices have pushed them to change their summer vacation plans.

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Air travel in the U.S. is almost back to pre-pandemic levels. Since last Saturday, an average of almost 2.3 million people a day have gone through airport checkpoints — down only 8% from the same days in 2019. If that trend continues through the weekend, records will be set for flying in the pandemic era.

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Airlines may not have enough planes and flights to carry all of them, especially if there are cancellations due to weather, crew shortages or any other reason.

“Airlines are learning the hard way that there is a severe price for over-optimism,” announced Joseph Schwieterman, a transportation specialist at DePaul University. “They are on the edge of a cliff this holiday.”

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Schwieterman calculates that airlines have a little cushion between the number of travelers expected to fly this weekend and the flights they plan to operate — if all goes well. Any disruptions could cause chaos because planes are booked full — there will be no empty seats on later flights to accommodate stranded travelers.

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Airlines have been caught short-staffed as they attempt to hire thousands of workers, including pilots, to replace those who they inspired to quit when the pandemic caused air travel to plummet.

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Many of them, including Delta, Southwest, and JetBlue, have trimmed summer schedules to reduce stress on their operations. They are using larger planes on average to carry more passengers with the same number of pilots. Those steps haven't been enough thus far this summer.

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