The carrier blamed Saturday’s cancellation on bad weather and Friday’s “air traffic control measures,” saying it was trying to cancel flights at least 24 hours in advance.
United canceled 23 flights on Saturday and JetBlue canceled 10 flights, representing about 1% of the carriers’ operations
On Thursday, Delta announced that it will be reducing its summer flight schedule before Memorial Day weekend. From July 1 to August 7, the airline said it will cut about 100 daily flights primarily in the United States and Latin America.
“More than at any time in our history, the various factors currently affecting our operations — weather and air traffic control, vendor personnel, increased COVID case rates contributing to higher-than-planned unscheduled absences in some workgroups — are leading to a consistently understaffed operation. to the standards that Delta has set for the industry in recent years,” Chief Customer Experience Officer Alison Ugend said in an online post.
The airlines also proactively canceled 230 flights on Monday. Delta 53 cut so far.
Delta said it expects about 2.5 million passengers to travel over the Memorial Day weekend — a 25% increase from last year. AAA estimated that 3 million Americans will travel by air over the weekend.
Separately, JetBlue said it will cut 8% to 10% of its summer schedule. Alaska Airlines cut its schedule by about 2% through June to match “pilot capacity.”
CNN’s Marnie Hunter contributed to this report.
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