More than 1,200 flights were canceled as of 2 pm Saturday, according to FlightAware. More than 2,300 cancellations were also recorded on Friday.
Delta Air Lines was the American company that suffered the hardest, with more than 240 flights canceled, or 9% of its operations on Saturday.
Delta said in an email to The Associated Press that the cancellations on Saturday were due to bad weather and air traffic controlwhich says it is working to cancel flights at least 24 hours in advance for the Memorial Day weekend.
Delta announced on its website Thursday that from July 1 to August 7, it will reduce services by approximately 100 daily departures, mainly in the United States and Latin America regions.
Increasing number of COVID cases
Several factors are currently affecting our operations-weather control and air traffic, vendor staff and the rising COVID cases are contributing to unplanned absences in some work groupssaid Allison Ausband, Delta’s director of customer experience.
Airlines and tourist destinations are expecting so many people this summer as travel restrictions are eased and pandemic fatigue overcomes the fear of being infected with COVID-19 while traveling.
Many forecasters believe that the number of travelers will reach or even exceed pre-pandemic ridership. However, airlines have thousands fewer employees than in 2019, contributing to widespread flight cancellations.
Domestic airline fares for the summer averaged more than $ 400 for a round trip, up 24% from the same time in 2019, before the pandemic, and 45% up since a year ago, according to at travel data company Hopper.
Source: Radio-Canada
