Airlines struggle to cope as travel picks up and storms force delays

Summer getaways are testing the limits of the country’s air travel system as airlines and airports try to restore operations that were decimated by the pandemic. Nearly 10,000 flights were delayed in the United States on Sunday, as travel surged and airlines contended with bad weather and other disruptions. Among the nation’s largest airlines, Southwest Airlines had the most delays, with 30% of flights running late, according to FlightAware, a flight tracking service. At American Airlines, 25% of flights were delayed, compared with 23% for United Airlines and 21% for Delta. The slowdowns occurred as travel reached new pandemic heights: The TSA screened 2.1m people at its airport security checkpoints on Sunday, the most since early March 2020. Several airlines, including Southwest, blamed bad weather for the delays. Thunderstorms affected operations at Delta’s hub airports in Atlanta, Minneapolis-St. Paul and Detroit and complicated efforts to get flight crews in place, a spokesman said. At American, the problems had been building since earlier in the month. “The first few weeks of June have brought unprecedented weather to our largest hubs, heavily impacting our operation and causing delays, canceled flights, and disruptions to crew member schedules and our customers’ plans,” American said. Each of the nation’s major airlines faced significant delays on Sunday, but only American also had substantial cancellations, which affected about 6% of flights, according to FlightAware. <br/>