ATLANTA – It’s another chaotic holiday weekend for those traveling by plane this Memorial Day, CNN reported.
More than 6,000 global flights have been canceled since Friday with hundreds of flights delayed, according to the FlightAware flight tracking website.
Some 1,640 flights were canceled on Sunday alone, according to FlightAware, with more than 500 of them flying in or out of the United States. As of Monday morning, there were already 1,228 cancellations, including more than 300 flights traveling in or out of the United States.
Delta Air Lines is heavily affected by cancellations, with more than 500 domestic and international flights canceled on Saturday, Sunday and Monday.
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The company blamed Saturday’s cancellations for bad weather and “air traffic control actions” that took place on Friday, saying it is trying to cancel flights preventively at least 24 hours in advance.
Delta canceled 121 flights on Monday, accounting for 4% of its operations. American Airlines canceled 117 flights on Monday, 3% of its operations.
Delta said in an online post that it will issue travel exemptions for those affected by bad weather in the southeast and northeast this weekend. The most affected airports, which include areas of New York City and Washington, DC, are listed on the company’s website.
AAA estimates that 3 million Americans will travel by plane over the weekend.
On Thursday, Delta announced it was reducing its summer flight schedule. From July 1 to August 7, the airline said, it would reduce about 100 daily flights, mostly to the U.S. and Latin America.
“More than at any time in our history, the various factors that currently affect our operation: the climate and air traffic control, the staffing of vendors, the increase in COVID case rates that contribute to unscheduled absences are higher than expected in some working groups, 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 director of experience of the Allison Ausband client in an online publication.
Separately, JetBlue said it would cut between 8% and 10% of its summer schedule. Alaska Airlines reduced its schedule by about 2% until June to match “pilot capacity.”
– CNN’s Marnie Hunter and Catherine Thorbecke contributed to this report.
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