For many travelers, the ‘friendly skies’ have become less friendly lately as travel delays are happening more and more often. On 20th June, it was reported that since 16th June moreover 19,000 flights across the country were either canceled or delayed. A number of reasons have been put in for the number of flight cancellations. There are several airlines who have been making daily cuts to their schedules as people move into summer 2022- some do this by selecting dozens of departures in advance in a week, others by axing them hours before or even once the passengers have boarded.
According to Delta Air Lines officials, bad weather and air traffic control actions were mainly responsible for flight cancellations. Other factors that affected their operations are vendor staffing, and increased COVID case rates also contributing to higher than planned unscheduled absences in some groups. Airline companies now have thousands of fewer employees than they had in 2019 which had at times led to widespread flight cancellations. In May, Alaska Airlines Officials stated that pilot shortages are one of the key factors that are contributing to their flight disruption. Several airline bosses have stated that getting new staff approved have meant not having enough crew on hand to operate their full planned schedules.
In terms of regular, daily cancellations flights like easyJet, British Airways is in the topmost position. Where EasyJet has been cancelling around 30-60 flights per day and British Airways has been cutting more than 120-150 per day.
