July 4 travel plans? Flight delay blame game has begun

With hundreds of flight cancellations and thousands of delays over the past few days heading into the July Fourth holiday weekend, the blame game has begun for the cause of the issues. 

Cancellations and delays have been widespread for the past week with severe and intense weather stretching across the East Coast. Strong thunderstorms and high winds prevented many departures the past few days, which then created a chain reaction of additional delays and cancellations. 

More than 250 flights within or coming in or out of the United States have been canceled as of early Friday morning, and more than 1,200 have been delayed, according to the flight-tracking website FlightAware. 

United Airlines has been hit the hardest in the past week, with about 3,000 flights canceled since Saturday. That includes 500 flights Thursday and about 200 more by 10 a.m. Friday. 

United CEO Scott Kirby blamed the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for the continuing issues. He said in a memo to employees Monday that the FAA “frankly failed us this weekend” with poor staffing levels. He said the company estimates that 150,000 travelers using United were impacted because of staffing shortages and the agency’s ability to manage air traffic. 

He said the FAA cut arrival rates by 40 percent and departure rates by 75 percent Saturday, putting “everyone behind the eight ball” when the weather arrived Sunday. 

JetBlue told The New York Times that it struggled to keep its schedule on time because air traffic control limited trips for airlines into and out of New York airports. 

The FAA told the Times that it did not have any staffing issues on the East Coast Monday or Tuesday and will work with anyone “seriously willing to join us to solve a problem.” 

Kirby said in the memo that FAA leaders are not to blame, as the staffing issue has been ongoing for years since before they came into their roles. 

A report from the Transportation Department released last week found that 20 of the country’s 26 most critical airport facilities were understaffed below the agency’s 85 percent threshold as of March 2022. 

AAA expects record levels of travel during the July Fourth holiday weekend, surpassing highs set in 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic.