Another man’s flight to Ghana has been delayed four times over the past 10 days during the busiest Labor Day weekend for travel in three years, forcing him to wait in a five-hour line after his flight was cancelled.
After more than 1,000 flights into, out of, or within the United States on Sunday were delayed, angry travellers are now venting their frustration on Twitter as they wait hours, or sometimes even days, for a new flight.
According to Flight Aware, which tracks flight delays and cancellations globally, another 127 flights were completely cancelled.
One Twitter user noted that “Delta cancelled my elderly parents flight from JFK to London yesterday, one hour before departure,” adding that “the airline did not announce the cancellation at the gate” and “directed those who were affected to a help desk, where they had to wait on line for five hours” before being informed that “there were no more hotel rooms to offer.”
She tweeted on Sunday, “My dad has Parkinson’s and was made to wait in a five-hour line in a foreign country without a phone or even an apology.”
While this was going on, Nicholas Kralev, the executive director of the Washington International Diplomatic Academy, tweeted that his international flight from Dulles International Airport in Virginia to Accra, Ghana had been cancelled ten hours prior to departure and that it had been delayed four times for more than 12 hours to’service the aircraft.
When Sylvie Tongco called a partner airline to United for a same-day flight, she was given one with a connection and “worse seats than what we paid,” according to Sylvie Tongco, who claimed she was then “rebooked” on a flight two days later.
Another Twitter user lamented the fact that her direct Delta flight had been cancelled and that the airline had rebooked her on a flight with a layover, but had removed her business class ticket and refused to let her into the lounge as a result.
Even yet, Sunday’s schedule was a dramatic improvement over the previous day, when 1.8 million travellers walked through TSA checkpoints and more than 3,600 flights were delayed and 145 were cancelled.
According to Spectrum News 1, the Federal Aviation Administration now anticipates that Labor Day will be the fourth busiest day of the year for air travel, with pre-pandemic levels of traffic expected.
The days leading up to the holiday weekend and the Monday after Labor Day were predicted to be the busiest for air travel, according to travel monitoring website Hopper, which predicts 12.6 million people will pass through American airports between September 1 and September 5.
In fact, the TSA has already reported that between Thursday and Saturday, 6.2 million people passed through their gate.
The busiest airports this weekend are expected to be Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Denver International Airport, and Los Angeles International Airport.
LAX tweeted on Friday that it would probably be the busiest day of the long weekend with 100,000 departing passengers and 92,000 vehicles entering the Central Terminal Area.
The federal Department of Transportation stated on Thursday that it has created an airline customer service dashboard, resulting in “substantial adjustments” to all but one of the ten major US airlines, to facilitate travel during the holiday weekend.
It provides an explanation of how certain airlines may assist passengers with rebooking or by giving them vouchers for meals and hotels if their flight is cancelled or delayed.
In a statement, Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg stated that “passengers need openness and clarity on what to anticipate from an airline when there is a cancellation or interruption.”
This dashboard compiles such data in one location so that passengers can quickly comprehend their rights, contrast airline policies, and make wise selections.
He said, “The Department will continue to assist travellers and hold airlines accountable for upholding their consumer commitments.”
The action was taken after Buttigieg urged airline executives to straighten up their act to prevent more delays and cancellations due to a lack of workers.
Prior to the July 4th holiday, he urged them to “stress-test” operations, which means that travel companies may wind up cancelling more flights if they find they won’t have the resources to run them.
Flight delays and cancellations have plagued travellers all summer long as carriers battle to satisfy the strong demand for travel while simultaneously dealing with pilot shortages brought on by the epidemic and major layoffs.
According to FOX News, the rate of flight cancellations has increased by over a third since the same period in 2019, before the COVID outbreak, and the rate of aircraft delays has increased by almost a quarter.
According to Forbes, the problem is only expected to worsen as industry authorities predict a shortage of 12,000 pilots this year due to the need that pilots have 1,500 qualifying flight hours before they can actually take control of an aircraft.
In addition, there aren’t enough flight schools to handle the training procedure, and pilot pay and perks have been declining recently.
The required retirement age of 65 for pilots set by the Federal Air Administration also accelerates certain people’s retirement dates.
Now that the epidemic lull has passed, the remaining pilots are asking for better treatment, alleging that the airlines are overworking them to satisfy the demand for summer tourism.
In favour of better working conditions and benefits, six airlines’ off-duty pilots picketed at more than a dozen airports nationwide on Thursday.
The Air Line Pilots Association, which speaks for hundreds of major US airlines, coordinated the protest.
The association stated in a statement that “our airlines notice” when ALPA pilots “stand shoulder to shoulder in support of common aims.”
To demonstrate to the public, our lawmakers, and our airlines that all airline pilots stand united in support of the profession’s overall goal of improved working conditions and benefits, we are asking all ALPA pilots to join us for an ALPA-wide informational picket on September 1.
A number of airlines have resorted to reducing their service in the meantime, with United Airlines officials announcing earlier this year that it would be reducing 12 percent of its domestic flights from Newark airport – where they claim ongoing construction has disrupted travel.
According to CNBC, executive vice president and chief operating officer Jon Roitman sent a memo to staff stating, “After the last few weeks of irregular operations in Newark, caused by many factors including airport construction, we reached out to the [Federal Aviation Administration] and reached a waiver allowing us to temporarily adjust our schedule there for the remainder of the summer.”
“Even though we have the aircraft, pilots, crews, and personnel to support our Newark schedule, this waiver will allow us to remove approximately 50 daily departures, which should help minimise excessive delays and improve on-time performance – not only for our customers, but for everyone flying through Newark,” the airline said.
At Newark Liberty International Airport, which is located just over the Hudson River from New York City and is often used by residents in the area, United is the major airline.
A United spokesperson stated on Thursday that only domestic flights will be impacted and that no destinations would be dropped from Newark.
One of the busiest airports in the country, Newark often has the most flight delays. Specifically Spirit and JetBlue, according to United CEO Scott Kirby, have been flying more flights than are permitted by federal regulations. Kirby also said that the FAA has “simply let folks shamelessly disregard the laws.”