Airline cancellations spiking ahead of July 4 holiday

More than 700 scheduled flights have been canceled in the U.S. Wednesday morning as airlines prepare for a surge of passengers ahead of the July Fourth holiday weekend. 

According to online flight tracker FlightAware, as of 11:30 a.m. there had been 1,373 scheduled flights in the U.S. canceled and another 2,197 other flights delayed. 

Of the canceled flights, 77 were at LaGuardia Airport, 74 were at Newark Liberty International Airport, 39 were at Chicago O’Hare International Airport, and 35 were at John F. Kennedy International Airport. 

Among airlines, United led the way with 363 flight cancellations so far Wednesday, followed by JetBlue with 89 canceled flights, Republic Airways with 72 canceled flights, and Delta with 61 canceled flights. 

This comes as nearly 10,000 scheduled flights in the U.S. were either canceled or delayed Tuesday, with a majority of them occurring on the East Coast as inclement weather heavily impacted the region.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has blamed airlines for the recent mess, accusing them of failing to live up to reasonable standards of customer service and suggesting that the airlines are scheduling more flights than they can handle.

In response, United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby blamed a shortage of federal air traffic controllers for massive disruptions at its Newark hub last weekend, writing in a memo that more than 150,000 customers were impacted due to Federal Aviation Administration “staffing issues and their ability to manage traffic.” 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.