Airline Delays, Cancellations Strike Again

Rapper Ice Cube had a bit hit with the song “It Was A Good Day,” but it’s likely not going to be adopted by the airline industry anytime soon.

For much of the spring and summer, airlines have had a bad day, and Sunday and Monday were no exceptions.

Bad weather has only fueled the fire already started because of a pilot and staffing shortage, and the last two days have seen tens of thousands of flight issues – 8,049 delays and 900 cancellations into and out of the United States on Sunday, August 21, according to the aviation tracking service FlightAware, and 5,295 flight delays and 879 cancellations today, Monday, August 22.

The disheartening news came just days after Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg – who has taken the airlines to task all summer – again scolded the industry over the mounting problems. Buttigieg said that as of September 2, the government will debut an “interactive dashboard” for air travelers to compare “services or amenities that each of the large U.S. airlines provide when the cause of a cancellation or delay was due to circumstances within the airline’s control.”

Airlines have tried to make inroads by cutting, trimming, and slashing the number of flights from its route schedule. But, so far, it hasn’t worked very well during the summer which gives pause to similar plans being enacted for the last fall as we approach the holiday season. American Airlines, for instance, is eliminating a whopping 31,000 flights just in November alone.

The pent-up demand for travel couple with a low supply of aviation workers – including Federal Aviation Administration air traffic controllers – has spelled disaster for the industry. Bad weather has only exacerbated the situation.