{"id":32864,"date":"2022-06-02T00:09:30","date_gmt":"2022-06-02T00:09:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/memorial-day-air-delays-a-preview-of-summer-of-hell\/"},"modified":"2022-06-02T00:09:30","modified_gmt":"2022-06-02T00:09:30","slug":"memorial-day-air-delays-a-preview-of-summer-of-hell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/memorial-day-air-delays-a-preview-of-summer-of-hell\/","title":{"rendered":"Memorial Day air delays a preview of summer of hell"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>If last weekend was any indication, we&#8217;re in for a turbulent summer for air travel, with staff shortages and severe weather interrupting our long-delayed getaways.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Why it matters:<\/strong> The summer of revenge travel is pushing up against the limits of airlines&#8217; capability to recover from the two-year pandemic.  Passengers should be prepared for fewer choices, higher prices and more delays.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Driving the news:<\/strong> US airlines canceled more than 2,800 flights over the Memorial Day weekend, according to FlightAware.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Bad weather in Florida, New York and the mid-Atlantic was a factor, along with air traffic control and staffing issues, airlines say.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>It&#8217;s not just Americans suffering<\/strong> through travel hell.  Passengers in Europe are waiting for hours to get through security or immigrations too.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The security line at Amsterdam&#8217;s Schiphol Airport, one of the world&#8217;s busiest, stretched so far out of the building over the weekend that Dutch airline KLM temporarily halted new reservations.  The airport even urged passengers to stay home.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Flashback:<\/strong> We&#8217;ve seen airline meltdowns before, as carriers struggled to meet demand that bounced back more quickly than expected in the summer and fall of 2021.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>This year, airlines have had plenty of time to prepare, even expanding their schedules ahead of a forecasted summer 2022 travel surge. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Yes, but:<\/strong> Labor shortages across the board &#8211; pilots, gate agents, baggage handlers, ground crews &#8211; are causing carriers to rethink those plans.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Almost all major US airlines have proactively cut their schedules, some by as much as 15%, acknowledging that their operations are already stretched to the brink.<\/li>\n<li>COVID-19 outbreaks among airline and airport workers are exacerbating the staffing crisis.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Between the lines:<\/strong> It doesn&#8217;t take long for a staff shortage in one airport to ripple across the entire country.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>If there aren&#8217;t enough ground workers in Cleveland, for example, to unload bags and service a plane, the aircraft will be stuck there, instead of heading to its next stop in, say, San Francisco.<\/li>\n<li>People waiting for a flight from San Francisco to Los Angeles will then be delayed too.<\/li>\n<li>Flight crews have limits on the amount of time they can be on duty without a rest, and sometimes they &#8220;time out&#8221; during such delays.  Unless another crew can take over, those time-outs can force cancellations.<\/li>\n<li>Airlines &#8220;don&#8217;t have the bench crew that they used to,&#8221; Madhu Unnikrishnan, editor of Skift&#8217;s Airline Weekly, tells Axios.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Compounding the labor shortage<\/strong> is that more people are heading to or passing through areas that are seeing more severe weather, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>In Florida, for example, traffic is 150% to 170% higher at some airports compared to pre-pandemic levels.<\/li>\n<li>The Sunshine State is also seeing more frequent thunderstorms, causing &#8220;significantly more weather delays in the area than normal,&#8221; per the FAA.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>The bottom line:<\/strong> There are a few things you can do to minimize headaches, The Points Guy CEO Brian Kelly tells Axios.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Book direct flights whenever possible: &#8220;A 45-minute layover is just a recipe for disaster,&#8221; he says.<\/li>\n<li>Enroll in TSA PreCheck or Global Entry to save time at security or customs. <\/li>\n<li>If your flight is canceled, seek help from your credit card provider, which could be faster than dealing with an overburdened airline. <\/li>\n<li>Take advantage of technology like self-tagged bags, facial recognition security systems or CLEAR&#8217;s new security reservation lane to speed through the lines. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>Editor&#8217;s note: An outdated reference to long security lines in Austin, Texas has been removed from this story.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If last weekend was any indication, we&#8217;re in for a turbulent summer for air travel, with staff shortages and severe weather interrupting our long-delayed getaways. Why it matters: The summer of revenge travel is pushing up against the limits of airlines&#8217; capability to recover from the two-year pandemic. Passengers should be prepared for fewer choices, &hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"> <a class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/memorial-day-air-delays-a-preview-of-summer-of-hell\/\"> <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Memorial Day air delays a preview of summer of hell<\/span> Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32865,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/images.axios.com\/RaBjP8_nkDe97lhLXV_YIS_1VzI=\/0x0:1920x1080\/1366x768\/2022\/05\/31\/1654025441458.jpg?ssl=1","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/images.axios.com\/RaBjP8_nkDe97lhLXV_YIS_1VzI=\/0x0:1920x1080\/1366x768\/2022\/05\/31\/1654025441458.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32864"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32864"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32864\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}