All eyes on airlines as July Fourth holiday weekend nears

Travelers ascend an escalator to a concourse at Hartsfield-Atlanta International Airport on Thursday, June 30, 2022 in Atlanta. – Airlines that have stumbled badly over the last two holidays face their biggest test yet of whether they can handle big crowds when July Fourth travelers mob the nation's airports this weekend.

from the same week last June, according to government figures. In a Quinnipiac University poll in June, 40% of those surveyed said gas prices have caused them to change their summer vacation plans.Air travel in the U.S. is almost back to pre-pandemic levels. Since last Saturday, an average of nearly 2.3 million people a day have gone through airport checkpoints — down just 8% from the same days in 2019. If that trend continues through weekend, records will be set for flying in the pandemic era.

Many of them, including Delta, Southwest and JetBlue, have trimmed summer schedules to reduce stress on their operations. They are using larger planes on average to carry more passengers with the same number of pilots. Those steps haven't been enough so far this summer. “Delta people are working around the clock to rebuild Delta’s operation while making it as resilient as possible to minimize the ripple effect of disruptions,” the airline said.Delta had by far the most canceled flights of any U.S. airline over the Memorial Day holiday stretch, when U.S. carriers, and again last weekend, when it canceled 7% of its flights, according to FlightAware.

The FAA has a major facility in Jacksonville, Florida, that handles many flights up and down the East Coast. After a meeting with airline representatives in May, the FAA promised to increase staffing at the center.Delta CEO Ed Bastian similarly blamed the FAA during an online meeting with employees Wednesday, trade publication Airline Weekly reported. Delta declined to comment.

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