ATLANTA (AP) – Hundreds of flights around the world were canceled on Sunday mid-afternoon, adding to the growing number of flights canceled during the busy Memorial Day holiday weekend in the US
More than 1,260 flights had been canceled by 2:30 pm EDT on Sunday, according to the FlightAware flight tracking website. That followed after more than 2,300 cancellations on Friday and another 1,500 on Saturday.
More than 350 of Sunday’s cancellations involved planes scheduled to fly to or from U.S. cities.
Delta Air Lines canceled most flights among major U.S. airlines, with more than 250 flights, or 9% of its operations, eliminated on Saturday. More than 150 Delta flights were canceled Sunday afternoon, according to FlightAware.
Saturday’s cancellations were due to bad weather and “air traffic control actions,” Atlanta-based Delta said in an email to The Associated Press, noting that it is trying to cancel flights. at least 24 hours before Memorial Day weekend.
Delta announced on its website on Thursday that from July 1 to August 7, it would reduce service by about 100 daily departures, mainly to parts of the United States and Latin America that Delta serves frequently.
“More than at any time in our history, the various factors that currently affect our operation: the climate and air traffic control, the sales staff, the increase in COVID case rates that contribute to absences not higher than expected in some working groups, they are leading to an operation that does not live up to the standards that Delta has set for the industry in recent years, “said the customer experience director of Delta, Allison Ausband, in a post.
Airlines and tourist destinations are expecting large crowds this summer as travel restrictions are eased and pandemic fatigue outweighs the lingering fear of contracting COVID-19 while traveling.
Many forecasters believe that the number of passengers will equal or even exceed pre-pandemic levels. However, airlines have thousands fewer employees than in 2019, and this has sometimes contributed to widespread flight cancellations.
People who are only now booking travel for the summer are experiencing the shock of the sticker.
Domestic air fares for the summer exceed $ 400 round trip, 24% more than this time in 2019, before the pandemic, and 45% higher than a year ago, according to the data firm Hopper Travel.