More than 1,300 cancellations as airlines try to recover from winter storms
A massive storm earlier in the week continued to make flying a challenge this weekend as airlines struggle to get operations back to normal. The storms have passed, but the impact lingers on.
On Friday, more than 4,000 flights were canceled into, out of or within the U.S., according to flight tracking company Flight Aware.
It was a better Saturday, with just over 1,300 U.S. cancellations, but that's still a lot of folks out of place and upset. American Airlines is the hardest hit today with more than 845 canceled flights ... that's a whopping 30% of its schedule.
Most of that is attributable to the residual effect of bad weather that hit the Dallas-Fort Worth area, according to Henry Harteveldt, a travel industry analyst and president of Atmosphere Research, who said American was struggling "getting parts and people back where they need to be."
"We're in recovery mode and the impact you're seeing is a result of that," American Airlines told TPG in an email on Saturday.
Related: Here's what to do if your flight is delayed or canceled
American essentially shut down its massive Dallas/Ft. Worth (DFW) hub, according to Tim Jue, a San Francisco-based reporter covering airlines and travel.
Jue told me:
"DFW is American's biggest hub, and when you shut down that operation — even for a few hours — it has ripple effects throughout the network. The major challenge for restarting an operation after irregular operations is pandemic-era staffing strains. Airlines are great at getting things back up and running after big storms, but having fewer staff on hand complicates and slows that effort."
American affiliate Envoy Air also canceled many flights on Saturday — about 14% of its schedule.
Better news from Southwest, which only canceled 3% of its flights today. That compares to 439 canceled flights on Friday about 12% of its schedule.
Related: 6 real-life strategies to use if your flight is canceled
It's been a rough few weeks for the airlines as cancellations that began the week before Christmas have continued into the second month of the new year. According to a TPG analysis, one out of every 13 flights was canceled over the holidays.
The good news is that the major storms have moved on, and things are looking up for Sunday. As of 4 p.m. on Saturday, only 63 flights are canceled for tomorrow.
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