Airlines making holiday changes

Flights scheduled to meet demand

DALLAS — Airlines shifted the timing of thousands of flights, even adding dozens of red-eye flights, to avoid delays while hauling millions of passengers through the Christmas weekend.

Rain and fog in the Northeast caused delays and cancellations Wednesday in Boston, New York and Washington — the busiest part of the country’s airspace. Rain in Chicago and Atlanta caused some delays in those cities, too.

Severe storms ripped through Mississippi and Alabama, but had little effect on air travel because no airport hubs are in those states.

Weather wasn’t the only culprit for travel headaches Wednesday. A Black Lives Matter protest in Minne-

apolis clogged roads around that city’s airport and temporarily blocked access to one of the two terminals. Passengers were again moving through airport security there as of 4:30 p.m.

Flight-tracking site FlightAware reported at least 5,300 delays and 430 cancellations by 7:15 p.m. Wednesday. Most of canceled flights were those of smaller regional jets that carry 50-76 passengers. More than 28,000 flights were scheduled for Wednesday, and a typical day has about 4,000 delays and 150 cancellations.

In Little Rock, home to Arkansas’ largest airport, nearly two dozen departures and arrivals were delayed throughout the day Wednesday.

But a spokesman for Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport/Adams Field said most of the delays were for under an hour. The spokesman, Shane Carter, attributed the delays mostly to weather in the Midwest and Southeast sections of the United States.

“There were a few isolated delays around midday related to the weather,” Carter said.

One flight from Charlotte, N.C., that was scheduled to arrive in Little Rock in the morning, was canceled, he said.

Also, severe weather in Little Rock diverted one flight to Memphis, Carter said. American Airlines Flight 5033 from Charlotte was scheduled to land at 10:23 a.m. in Little Rock. The flight ultimately arrived at

3:44 p.m., he said.

Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport in Highfill appeared to have a handful of minor delays, according to the airport’s website. No reason was given for the delays.

Nationwide, airlines expect about 38 million passengers over a 17-day period spanning Christmas and New Year’s Day, an increase of about 3 percent, according to industry trade group, Airlines for America. The group says the average flight would be 90 percent full.

Crowds like that mean that any hiccup in the system — delays at a major airport or a technology glitch — ripple across the country and leave tens of thousands stranded in airport lines.

“The biggest factor is always weather,” said American Airlines spokesman Ross Feinstein.

Back-to-back storms led to more than 4,300 canceled flights around Christmas 2012.

This year, the Northeast corridor should be free of snow and ice and is expected to be relatively balmy with temperatures on Christmas Day in the 60s from New York to Boston. But rain and snow are forecast through today in parts of the West, and the South and Ohio Valley could have more severe storms before Christmas.

Airlines have been helped recently by the El Nino pattern that has spawned above-average temperatures to northern states. “We saw that through the Thanksgiving holiday season, and we’ve seen that

through November and December,” said Steve Hozdulick, Southwest Airlines’ managing director of operational performance.

United Airlines posted its lowest flight-cancellation rate ever for a Thanksgiving week, and Southwest Airlines had its best on-time performance ever for the day before Thanksgiving, which helps reduce other problems such as lost or delayed bags.

From 9 percent to 19 percent of flights across multiple airports were delayed over the peak five-day Thanksgiving period, according to FlightAware. A year earlier, when the weather was worse, delay rates ran between 12 percent and 31 percent.

Experts say airlines in recent years have done better jobs of adjusting schedules for peak holiday periods.

According to Mark Duell of FlightAware, U.S. airlines added up to 700 flights a day for Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday, compared with the same days last week. They cut about 4,400 flights for today, Christmas Eve, and another 5,700 on Friday, Christmas Day, when fewer people want to travel, he said.

Delta Air Lines and its Delta Connection affiliate scheduled 5,253 flights for next Sunday, compared with fewer than 5,000 on a typical winter Sunday. Southwest Airlines expected Wednesday to be its busiest day, with more than 3,800 flights.

The peak day was Friday for American Airlines, with 6,900 flights, and United Airlines,

nearly 5,000, but both also will operate increased flights for the next two Sundays.

Some of the additional flights are late at night, which gives travelers more options and sometimes lower fares. American and United airlines successfully used red-eye flights over Thanksgiving.

At Delta, some extra flights will connect big cities that get heavy traffic all of the time, while others will go to warm-weather destinations, said spokesman Morgan Durrant. Delta will occasionally use bigger planes. Through Jan. 3 there is an Atlanta-Salt Lake City round trip using a 293-seat Airbus A330 instead of smaller planes such as Boeing 737s with 160 seats.

The airlines say they will have enough employees on hand to handle the extra passengers.

The Transportation Security Administration also is adjusting staffing, said spokesman Mike England. Wait times at security checkpoints have increased this year, and passengers can expect longer delays during the holidays, he said. Holiday travelers slow the process when they overstuff carry-on bags, which makes the bags harder to screen.

Many travelers are bound to be stressed out. Patience will be valuable. Along with portable chargers for phones and other gadgets.