After a holiday weekend that saw record numbers of travelers and widespread disruption, the airline industry struggled to get back on track on Tuesday, delaying and canceling hundreds of flights.
According to flight tracking service FlightAware, more than a thousand international and domestic flights were either delayed or canceled on Tuesday. During the July 4 holiday weekend, millions of people traveled through American airports, resulting in more than 3,800 delays and 250 cancellations.
Since Thursday, U.S. airlines have canceled over 2,200 flights and delayed another 25,000, according to The Associated Press. Reasons for quordle this included severe weather on the East Coast, persistent worker shortages, and a software bug that led American Airlines to mistakenly cancel pilot assignments for thousands of flights in the month of July.
On Monday, a company spokesman assured the news agency that the problem had been resolved and that it would not affect travel plans for the Fourth of July.
According to the AP, cancellations have increased by 59% over the past two weeks compared to the same period in 2018. Airlines have cancelled their summer schedules ahead of time to prevent further cancellations.
The unprecedented number of people who traveled by air over the holiday weekend only added to the chaos. The Transportation Security Administration reports that between Thursday, June 30, and Monday, July 4, more than 11.2 million passengers passed through U.S. airports. According to TSA spokesperson Lisa Farbstein, that number included 2,490,490 passengers on Friday, the highest number of passengers screened since February 11, 2020, when the TSA saw more than 2.5 million travelers.
The number of people going through security checkpoints has returned to pre-pandemic levels, according to a tweet by Farbstein.
According to AAA, gas prices across the United States averaged $4.80 per gallon over the July 4 holiday weekend, with prices in some states exceeding $6 per gallon.
