Holiday weekend flight cancellations stretch into Memorial Day

Thousands of flights have been canceled or delayed this holiday weekend, with multiple flights disrupted on Memorial Day.

As of noon, 1,051 flights had been delayed within, into or out of the United States on Monday and 342 were cancelled, according to FlightAware.

Delta Air Lines and American Airlines had canceled 106 and 88 flights, respectively, as of Monday morning.

The social media channels of Delta, American and United Airlines were inundated with passengers reaching out over flight changes, cancellations and their changing travel plans within the U.S. and abroad.

“For Memorial Day weekend, we are enacting cancelations at least 24 hours in advance of departure time wherever possible,” a Delta spokesperson told The Hill. “Delta notifies customers through Fly Delta App notifications, email and text message, and automatically rebooks them on the next best available option to their final destination.”

An American Airlines spokesperson told The Hill: “Those delays and cancellations were the result of severe weather in Miami. The cancellations accounted for less than 2% of our operation yesterday.”

“A small percentage of our operation was impacted yesterday, mainly by severe weather around our Denver hub,” a United spokesperson said. “We’re working to get impacted customers to their destinations as safely and quickly as possible.”

Sunday saw 5,077 delayed flights and 546 cancellations in the country, with major U.S.-based airlines accounting for the majority of the delays.

Around 23 percent of Delta’s flights were either canceled or delayed Sunday, compared to 31 percent of United’s flights and 20 percent of American’s flights.

Delta, however, had the most cancellations of U.S.-based airlines with 164 flights scrapped from its schedule. In comparison, American Airlines had 74 and United 33.

Atlanta-headquartered Delta had announced ahead of Memorial Day that it would be reducing its service by approximately 100 daily departures from July 1 to Aug. 7, mainly in the U.S. and Latin America. Chief Customer Experience Officer Allison Ausband had cited various factors impacting its operation, including “weather and air traffic control, vendor staffing, and increased COVID case rates” for the change.

The cancellations and delays come ahead of what analysts are predicting will be a busy summer for the travel industry as flight prices have risen exponentially as demand outpaces supply.

Prices of both diesel and jet fuel have continued to rise since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine impacted oil markets and global gas prices.

–Updated at 12:17 p.m.