Airline flight cancellations are skyrocketing. Is industry self-preservation the reason?
U.S. air travelers saw at least 2,500 more airline cancellations this past Memorial Day weekend, with 2,400 more flights delayed, according to the air traffic monitoring site FlightAware.
While the weather was a factor for some of the Memorial Day weekend flight cancellations along the U.S. eastern seaboard, the cancellations are indicative of a larger pattern of commercial airplanes stuck on the tarmac.
Short-staffing due to pandemic lockdowns, larger demand for the public to fly after two years of covid quarantines, and air traffic control issues are the major reasons why so many flights are grounded these days.
“More than any time in our history, the various factors currently impacting our operation—weather and air traffic control, vendor staffing, increased COVID case rates contributing to higher-than-planned unscheduled absences in some workgroups — are resulting in an operation that isn’t consistently up to the standards Delta has set for the industry in recent years,” Delta’s (DAL) – Get Delta Air Lines, Inc. Report Chief Customer Experience Officer Allison Ausband said in a statement.
Delta has already announced plans to ground 100 listed flights from July 1 to August 7 in order to give the airline company some breathing room this summer.
An Indifferent Industry?
The conventional wisdom is that the airline industry has understandable, if not consumer-driven, reasons for shutting down and delaying flights.
‘The situation that we see right now, with flight cancellations and long support delays, is due to the confluence of several issues,” said Danny Finkel, chief travel officer at TripActions, a travel expense management firm in Seattle, Washington.
“Some airlines brought back entire fleets to meet higher-than-anticipated demand for travel this summer but have been unable to meet staffing needs due to various reasons, such as re-certifying pilots, getting necessary security clearances, and even greater than anticipated time off.”
“In other words, demand has outstripped supply, and when you couple that with, say, summer thunderstorms, it creates the domino effect that travelers are currently managing,” Finkel said.
Other industry veterans are harsher in their assessment of airlines’ rationale for canceling flights.
“There are many excuses provided by the travel industry globally,” said Damian Burleigh, chief revenues officer at Acuity Knowledge partners, a London, UK-based research, analytics, and business intelligence company. “In the end, however, many reasons are excuses, as airlines frankly don’t care about its customers or staff when balanced with profits.”
According to Burleigh, airlines look out for themselves first, mainly by selling forward tickets and change-loading to accommodate the bottom line, and forgetting what they actually offered the flying consumer.
“The travel industry has had it extremely hard, but even pre-crisis they treated both staff and customers poorly, and this is a continuation of that trend,” Burleigh said.
“Improved analytics and customer focus could change this but airline return-on-investment would change,” he added. “Airlines continue to play fast and loose and regulation could be even more effective. Equally, regulators need to hold these airlines to account.”
Recourse for Cancelled Travelers
Frustrated travelers should prepare for itinerary changes with tools that provide up-to-the-minute information to let them know about changes to an itinerary, such as delays or cancellations.
“If a flight is canceled due to airline-initiated scheduling changes, the onus is on the airline to find a suitable alternative flight or provide a credit for the value of the booking,” Finkel said. “Travel insurance can help mitigate some losses — but travelers should be sure to read the fine print regarding cancellation policies to ensure they’re informed on what is covered.”
