With jet fuel continuing to sit at historic flights amid the Iran war and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, multiple airlines have been forced to trim their networks to prioritize only the most profitable routes.
National airlines such as Air France, KLM and Lufthansa all canceled dozens of flights over the last month while the latter also shut down its CityLine regional airline a year earlier than initially anticipated to minimize any unnecessary jet fuel use.
After trimming some routes between the U.S. and Canada over jet fuel concerns, Delta Air Lines has had much more extensive cancelations over the weekend leading up to May 4 over what the Atlanta-based airline classified as weather issues but left some travelers with questions.
Delta Air Lines cancels hundreds of flights, blames the weather
According to flight-tracking data, Delta canceled 157 of its flights on Friday May 1, 219 flights on Saturday and 125 flights on Sunday. This amounted to up to 7% of the carrier’s total flight schedule on Saturday and a slightly less but still significant number on other days.
Many travelers took to social media to complain of abrupt cancelations and not being able to reach Delta representatives for help with their booking. In one incident that ended up going viral on multiple social media platforms, a frustrated passenger at LAX seized the microphone at one of the airport’s gates to ask “Delta, Delta, is anybody working?”
Related: Another airline shuts down over Iran war, all flights off
“Delta is a mess,” another wrote on X. “They’ve canceled it at the gate and we’re all awaiting bags at baggage reclaim, but the app hasn’t updated and says the flight is only delayed. What is going on?”
Beyond a brief statement saying that the cancelations were caused by inclement weather, Delta offered almost no commentary on the situation. Given that there were no major weather-related events anywhere in the U.S. over the weekend, some speculated why the airline was canceling so many flights when competitors weren’t.
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What is behind all the Delta cancelations at the start of May
Aviation watchdog JonNYC wrote that the problem could also be caused by pilot staffing problems that exacerbate minor issues with weather or other minor problems that arise.
“As far as the current situation, this definitely all seems to be directly related to DL’s systems and staffing,” the watchdog wrote. “The one small caveat to that is that there was a small hail-storm on Monday that might have kicked things off this time around to a -degree-, but no other major weather component– which as we know is the majority of time the catalyst.”
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Delta’s silence and contrast to its usual reputation for reliability fueled significant passenger panic especially in the wake of the collapse of Spirit Airlines a few days earlier.
The beleaguered low-cost airline was dealt the final blow when jet fuel skyrocketed and it was no longer able to stay afloat following two past bankruptcy filings. In what is the biggest collapse in recent U.S. aviation history, the airline told passengers with any flights booked beyond May 2 to “look to rebook your travel on a different airline.”
Related: Major airline canceling Middle East flights ‘until later this year’
