US Air Travel Chaos Eases After 21,000 Flights Canceled, Delayed Over Busy Weekend

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - US air travel returned to normal after a hectic weekend that saw more than 21,000 flights delayed or canceled.

At least 7,224 flights were delayed or canceled on Sunday and 4,075 on Saturday, according to the FlightAware tracking service's dashboard. This came after 10,410 were canceled or delayed on Friday, USA Today reported citing FlightAware. The three-day total amounts to 21,709, including 3,167 cancels and 18,542 delays.

The figure dropped to 3,824 by end of day Monday, the dashboard showed, including 3,445 delays and 379 cancels.

Much of the heavy traffic was due to Juneteenth, a new federal holiday observed on Monday, and Father’s Day on Sunday, experts told CNN.

The Transportation Safety Administration screened 2.4 million travelers US airports on Friday, increasing 17 percent from the Friday before Father’s Day last year, the agency said.

When demand for flights tumbled during the first year of the pandemic, major American airlines slashed employees using early retirement packages and buyouts to cull staff. But in the aftermath of the global pandemic, airlines have had great difficulty building employees numbers to pre-pandemic levels.

Unfortunately, staffing and scheduling issues continue to plague the airlines and bad weather also adds to the difficulty of scheduling flights.