Mounting flight delays. Stranded fliers. Airlines struggle with surging July 4 demand

Air passengers across the United States faced extensive flight cancellations and delays this weekend, caused by a boom in travel demand coupled with widespread staffing shortages. From Friday through Sunday, airlines that fly within, into, or out of the United States canceled more than 1,400 flights, according to FlightAware, a flight-tracking website, stranding and angering some passengers headed for long-awaited summer vacations. In addition, more than 14,000 flights were delayed this holiday weekend, according to the site’s data. Some airlines seemed to be struggling to handle passenger volume that approached or in some cases even exceeded prepandemic levels. On Friday, the TSA screened more passengers — 2.49m people — than on any other day this year. That surpassed the 2.18 travelers screened on July 1, 2019, before the pandemic. The experience was frustrating for some passengers on US carriers. On Saturday, 1,048 — or 29% — of Southwest flights were delayed, as were 28% of American Airlines flights, according to FlightAware. United and Delta had similar problems, with 21% and 19% of their flights also delayed. On Sunday, the middle of the holiday weekend, travelers seemed to be getting a respite from the worst of the problems. Adding to the pressure on air carriers this weekend was a glitch in the pilot-scheduling system at American Airlines that enabled pilots to drop thousands of flight assignments for July. The airline said on Saturday that it did not anticipate any “operational impact” because of the glitch. But the Allied Pilots Association, the union for American Airlines pilots, said that the airline had unilaterally reinstated the dropped trips without the agreement of the pilots. The union said it was pressing the airline to pay an “inconvenience premium” to pilots affected by the scheduling system problems.<br/>