Delays, cancellations are testing flyers

After a recent trip to St. Louis, Ruth Peebles finally made it back home to Los Angeles. But by the time her plane touched down in Burbank, she had spent $800 on a one-way ticket after her original flight was canceled. She slept on the floor at Salt Lake City International Airport after her rebooked flight also was canceled. Three days after arriving home, her luggage showed up. It was her worst flight experience since weather left her stranded in Russia in 1979, the film producer and actress said.

Travelers have long been encouraged to “pack patience” and be flexible when flying, but thousands of delays and cancellations this year are testing their mettle. Pandemic-era problems that hobbled the national air system as it struggled to regain footing last summer have not abated, despite pledges from airline executives of a renewed focus on reliability.

The problems persist despite billions of dollars in pandemic relief funds that U.S. airlines received to keep workers on the job. When Americans were ready to fly again, the expectation was that airlines would be ready for them. But with another surge in air travel expected for the July Fourth holiday and airlines scrambling to find pilots and other workers, both passengers and analysts are worried the system is poised for more summer meltdowns.

Trading blame

The weekend of Father’s Day and Juneteenth, thousands of travelers were left fuming after more than 3,000 flights were canceled and more than 19,000 were delayed. This past Sunday included more than 800 cancellations and nearly 7,000 delays. Airlines say they are doing their best to retool operations, arguing there are no models for navigating a global pandemic. They have stepped up hiring, in some cases offering $10,000 signing bonuses to replace the 50,000 workers who left at the height of the pandemic.

In a letter to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg ahead of July Fourth, Nicholas Calio, CEO of Airlines for America, reiterated the industry’s commitment to delivering a “safe and on-time product not only over the holiday weekend but throughout the summer.” But he also laid some blame on the national air traffic control system, noting one carrier estimated air traffic control issues “were a factor in at least one-third of recent cancellations.”

The Federal Aviation Administration pushed back on those assertions, saying the airline industry is aware of and cooperating with steps the FAA has taken to address concerns. “After receiving $54 billion in pandemic relief to help save the airlines from mass layoffs and bankruptcy, the American people deserve to have their expectations met,” the agency said in a statement.

Delays and cancellations are costly for carriers, to the tune of millions of dollars. But consumer advocates are asking why, two years after airlines began receiving infusions of cash, the system remains in disarray.

“This is really an unacceptable situation,” said William McGee, senior fellow for aviation and travel at the American Economic Liberties Project, a nonprofit group focused on enforcement of antitrust regulations. “They got that big bailout with grants and loans, and there was only one caveat: You need to make sure your staffing stays up. So what did airlines do? They found a loophole and they managed to encourage people to leave, which is exactly what Congress asked them not to do.”

Traveler travails

Despite pent-up demand, carriers have cut hundreds of flights from their future schedules as they seek to balance demand with staffing. The cuts are intended to reduce the number of last-minute cancellations, but that also means there are fewer options to accommodate disrupted travelers.

Poli Gupta and her family were scheduled to fly from New York to Orlando, Fla., earlier this month so her teenage son, Shubham, could compete in an international geography competition. A few hours before their JetBlue Airways flight was to leave John F. Kennedy International Airport, Gupta’s phone chimed with an alert. The flight was canceled.

The family rushed to the airport, hoping to rebook, only to encounter hundreds of others desperate to do the same. “That should have been my cue to start driving,” Gupta said. The family bought tickets on two other carriers hoping one flight would depart. Neither did.

JetBlue eventually said it could get the family to Orlando, but there was a catch. They would have to drive to Washington to get on a flight, arriving too late for Shubham to compete.

Gupta got a refund from JetBlue, but she estimates she is still out $1,000 for a trip that never happened.

In a statement, JetBlue blamed the flight issues on “air traffic control delay programs that resulted from weather” and other air traffic control “staffing issues.”

“I wish that airlines would just be more responsive to people,” Gupta said.

Airlines “are squeezing their schedules as lean as they can to accommodate as many passengers as they can,” said Jeff Pelletier, the managing director of Airline Data. “But they are still playing with the math, and it is not always going to be right.”