About 55,000 flights have been canceled in the U.S. since the Friday before Memorial Day, according to data from flight tracking site FlightAware, and nearly a quarter of U.S. flights have been delayed this summer.
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'Optimal' travel heading into fallBangs said airlines pared down their summer schedules by about 15%, which she said is one of the main reasons the numbers of delays and cancellations haven't been higher. "Travel should be optimal during September through October, as demand drops so there is not the same level of stress on the heavy airline schedules we saw over the summer," Bangs said.Experts at Hopper were recently seeing U.S. domestic airfare down 37% for travel in September and October compared to peak summer airfare.
She also said she expects the circulation of COVID variants, plus seasonal viruses like the flu, to affect employee absenteeism this fall, noting that illness hit the airlines very hard during the 2021 Christmas season and into January. In addition to its pressure on airlines to provide more transparency around passenger rights, the DOT has proposed new rules that would strengthen protections for airline passengers. That proposal is open for public comment.
Transportation Secretary Buttigieg has acknowledged that the Federal Aviation Administration also has staffing issues to address, although he still puts the majority of the recent air travel disruptions on airlines.