The airline blames Saturday’s cancellations on bad weather and “air traffic control actions” on Friday, saying it is trying to cancel flights at least 24 hours in advance.
United canceled 23 flights and JetBlue canceled 10 Saturday, about 1% of airlines
On Thursday, Delta announced it would shorten its summer flight schedule for the Memorial Day weekend. From July 1 to August 7, the airline would cancel about 100 daily flights, mainly in the US and Latin America.
“More than ever in our history, the various factors currently impacting our operation — weather and air traffic control, supplier staffing, increased COVID cases contributing to higher-than-planned unplanned absences in some work groups — have resulted in an operation that consistently meets the standards Delta has set for the industry in recent years,” Chief Customer Experience Officer Allison Ausband said in an online post.
Airlines also preventively cancel almost 200 flights on Monday. Delta has scrapped 75 so far.
Delta said it expected about 2.5 million customers over the holiday weekend — a quarter more than last year. AAA estimated that 3 million Americans flew through the air on Memorial Day weekend.
Separately, JetBlue said it would reduce 8 to 10% of its summer schedule.” Alaska Airlines has cut its schedule by about 2% through June to match “pilot capacity.”
— DailyExpertNews’s Marnie Hunter contributed to this report.
