Air travel hits another pandemic high, flight delays grow

Air travel in the US is hitting new pandemic-era highs, and airlines are scrambling to keep up with the summer vacation crowds. Despite rising numbers of coronavirus infections fueled by the delta variant, the US set another recent high mark for air travel on Sunday, with more than 2.2m people going through airport checkpoints, according to the TSA. That is nearly 11,000 more people screened than Jul 18, and the highest number since Feb 28, 2020, before the US felt the full brunt of the pandemic. However, air travel was still down 17% on Sunday from the same Sunday in 2019. The resurgence of leisure travel, coupled with some bad weather, has led to delays and flight cancellations at airlines struggling to ramp up after being crushed by the pandemic. Airlines have thousands fewer workers than they did before the pandemic, and at times they have been caught short-staffed even though they received US$54b in taxpayer money to keep employees on the payroll. By mid-afternoon on Monday, Spirit Airlines cancelled about 290 flights - more than one-third of its schedule - citing weather and “operational challenges.” American Airlines cancelled 500 flights, or 16% of Monday's schedule by late afternoon. With other planes mostly full this summer, airlines are struggling to rebook passengers on cancelled flights.<br/>