(CNN) – Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg urged airline executives in a private conversation on Thursday to review their flight schedules and take other steps to soften the impact of summer flight cancellations , according to a source familiar with the call.
The source said Buttigieg asked the CEOs of the call to talk about plans to prevent and respond to disruptions during the holiday weekend of July 4 and beyond.
The call on Thursday evening came on the same day that more than 1,700 flights were canceled by airlines, according to FlightAware flight tracking data, largely driven by East Coast storms.
In this case, the airlines could do little. Air traffic controllers issued ground stops at six airports, including the three major hubs in New York City.
But the outage came on Friday. FlightAware reported that airlines canceled more than 1,250 U.S. flights, many from East Coast airports, at 3:30 p.m. ET.
A special eye on Florida
The call also addressed air travel to and from Florida, a region dense in commercial air travel that has caught the attention of officials.
After carriers raised concerns that the Federal Aviation Administration did not have adequate staffing for flight numbers, the agency said this week that it will “place additional air traffic controllers at its facilities. Florida to support our long-term strategy of staffing to increase traffic demand. ”
Buttigieg thanked airlines for working with the FAA to improve the situation, including the use of alternative routes to alleviate congestion, the source said.
Airlines for America, the trade group representing many of the participants, said in a statement that airlines and the Department of Transportation have a “shared commitment to prioritize the safety and security of all passengers when meeting with friends, family and colleagues this summer. ”
“U.S. airlines always strive to provide safe and hassle-free travel, and recognize the importance of ongoing collaboration between our industry and the federal government to ensure that aviation remains the safest means of transportation. safe in the world “.
More than 2,700 cancellations over Memorial Day weekend drew attention to the challenge of rebuilding the pandemic-affected air travel system.
Union criticizes Delta’s programming
Delta Air Lines finally said it would cancel about 100 daily flights this summer to minimize schedule interruptions. He told CNN that planners “continually evaluate our staffing models and plan ahead so that we can recover quickly when unforeseen circumstances occur.”
But the Delta pilots’ union on Thursday launched a protest at an airline business meeting and called the airline’s scheduling “unacceptable.”
“We’ve been working our days off, doing a record amount of overtime to help you get to your destination,” the Delta arm of the Airline Pilots Association wrote in a message to passengers. “At the current rate, this fall, our pilots will have flown more overtime in 2022 than throughout 2018 and 2019 together, our busiest years to date.”
The union representing Southwest Airlines pilots says the airline scheduled about 200 more daily flights in June than the pilots to make them fly. CNN has contacted Southwest for comment.
Top image: Passengers queue at a security checkpoint at Denver International Airport’s main terminal on Thursday, May 26, 2022. (Photo AP / David Zalubowski / Archive)