US airline cancellation rate remains low despite record summer travel

U.S. airlines have canceled 1.6% of all flights this year despite record summer travel and significant disruptions in July sparked by cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, the Transportation Department said on Thursday. USDOT said the cancellation rate through Tuesday this year is slightly above the 1.5% cancel rate for 2023 but lower than any other year since 2017 when it was 1.4%. The TSA said last week that U.S. summer travel has set a new record and is forecasting record passenger levels for the Labor Day travel period that marks the end of the summer season. The TSA is forecasting it will screen 17m air travelers between Thursday and Sept. 4, up 8.5% over the same holiday period last year. Airlines for America, a trade group, said carriers plan to have 3.3% more seats departing U.S. airports through Monday over 2023. FlightAware and the airline group said carriers canceled less than 100 flights on Thursday -- or less than 0.5% of flights, but the Federal Aviation Administration warned afternoon weather may cause delays at some airports. The TSA screened 3.01m airline passengers on July 7, the highest number ever on a single day and the first time it surpassed 3m. The software update last month by global cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike triggered system problems for Microsoft customers, including many airlines, and led to thousands of flight cancellations. Delta Air Lines canceled about 7,000 flights over five days, affecting 1.3m customers and taking much longer than other carriers to recover.<br/>