Flight disruptions stretch into fifth day

Flight cancellations and delays racked up for a fifth straight day Thursday as severe weather caused a domino effect of challenges for airlines, especially United Airlines.

United has canceled more than 2,600 flights since Saturday, including more than 300 on Thursday as high winds and thunderstorms rocked its hub airport in Newark, N.J. The airline canceled 800 flights on Tuesday, the most in one day since the height of the COVID pandemic.

The flight woes are a cause for concern for Independence Day weekend travelers. Other New York airports also saw a large number of cancellations and delays.

Nearly 200 JetBlue flights, just less than 20 percent of all its flights, were delayed on Thursday. JetBlue has a hub airport at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.

While other airlines in New York also suffered significant cancellations early in the week due to bad weather, only United has seen significant carryover into Wednesday and Thursday.

On Monday, United CEO Scott Kirby blamed air traffic controller shortages for some of the difficulties, but unions representing those workers have denied the claims, instead blaming United’s internal scheduling.

“The FAA frankly failed us this weekend,” Kirby said.

Kirby said the FAA had staffing shortages that compounded issues caused by weather. Federal data shows that airlines, not the FAA, are responsible for a majority of flight delays and cancellations.

Summer travel has bounced back since nearly entirely stopping during the COVID pandemic. More than 2.5 million people crossed TSA checkpoints Wednesday, about the same amount as the same date in 2019.

To deal with the ripple effects of cancellations, United is offering flight attendants triple pay to pick up extra shifts until July 6, the attendants’ union said.

The TSA has estimated 2.8 million Americans will fly Friday, which is expected to be the busiest travel day before the Fourth of July holiday on Tuesday. That figure is in line with 2019 traveler volumes.

About 17.7 million people are expected to fly in the seven days surrounding Independence Day.