Washington — Surging summer delays and a record number of travelers have made a habitually horrible peak airline travel season feel even worse.
While flight cancellations are down about 14% this summer compared to last, according to flight tracking website FlightAware, delays are up, and so are frustrations.
“It got cancelled,” one flyer told CBS News of their flight. “We don’t know why, and they aren’t going to fly us out until two days from now.”
This week, the House overwhelmingly passed a bipartisan bill that seeks to address airlines’ obligations to their customers at a time of growing disruption and dysfunction in the industry.
“We understand that airlines don’t control the weather, but they still need to meet certain basic standards of taking care of customers,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg told Reuters.
Buttigieg is pursuing new rules that would require companies to compensate passengers for delays or cancellations that are the fault of the airline.
“One thing we’ve found is that even threats of regulation can motivate airlines to do the right thing,” Buttigieg said.
However, the airlines say the Federal Aviation Administration is also to blame, pointing to a shortage of staff and air traffic controllers.
The FAA contends that severe weather and flight volume were the biggest drivers in flight delays in 2023. The agency contends that it is working to hire 1,800 more air traffic controllers in the next year. It says it is also launching new, online videos to explain to passengers in real time what is happening in the skies.
But flight disruptions have not been the only challenge for travelers.
“We went directly through the state department, online — submitted our prior passports, which were only expired like a year,” passport applicant Pam Rogers said.
A massive backlog of passport applications has potential international passengers waiting up to 13 weeks for documents which is causing missed trips, nonrefundable charges and a flood of constituents asking members of Congress for help.
“There’s only a few times in your life when you actually need your government, this is one of those moments,” Rogers said.
London — Many Americans who visited Europe in 2022 saw their summer vacation plans marred by travel chaos. Strikes, staff shortages and canceled flights mired the first full-fledged season of summer travel after the lockdowns of the COVID-19 pandemic ground tourism to a halt.
This year, Americans and Europeans alike are still clearly eager to get back out and explore the world. Data from online travel agency Hopper shows demand for international trips already outpacing the summer of 2022. Despite the average cost of airfares increasing to a six-year high, Europe is still the number one region of choice for Americans planning vacations.
Lingering staff shortages in the wake of the mass layoffs and career changes among airline and airport support staff during the coronavirus lockdowns, coupled with rebounding demand, made for grueling waits at security checkpoints last year. With gaps in rosters and new staff lacking experience, many major airports were simply unable to cope with the demand after COVID restrictions were lifted.
But Senior Vice President of Communications for the European division of Airports Council International (ACI) Virginia Lee told CBS News that those staffing issues have been “largely overcome” and people should “travel with confidence.”
“Airports have been going to extraordinary lengths to improve [employment] packages where they can, to look at employment conditions where they can, and doing everything in their power to make them attractive places to work,” Lee said.
But staffing isn’t the only concern, and there have been warnings that Americans flying around Europe this summer may not find things much better than last year.
Passengers line up to board a Ryanair flight at Paris-Beauvais airport, June 20, 2023, in Tille, France.
Artur Widak/NurPhoto/Getty
Eurocontrol, the agency that manages airspace and flight traffic control for most of the continent, has warned that the war in Ukraine and the subsequently higher number of military flights around Europe have reduced the space for civilian flights by as much as 20%.
Britain’s The Times newspaper said important regions like Marseille, Athens and Budapest would likely experience “high overloads” of air traffic on most days, and that many other European travel hubs, including London, Barcelona and Brussels, could also experience major congestion on peak days such as Fridays and weekends.
There’s also the looming threat of industrial action by air traffic controllers, security workers, baggage handlers and other vital staff, particularly in France and Britain, which have both been hit by repeated strikes over the last year and which both have airports that serve as key entry points and hubs for travelers from the U.S.
Aviation consultant John Strickland told CBS News that while strikes are unlikely to affect flights arriving from the U.S., they could disrupt people’s travel plans within Europe.
“If [passengers] are flying on flights like, U.K. to Spain, Portugal, or Italy, those are more susceptible if there is a French air traffic control strike or manpower shortages,” Strickland said. “It can certainly cause delays and, maybe in extreme, force cancellations.”
Strickland said there’s little passengers can do to avoid getting caught up in strike action, so “it’s more about being informed and aware, than concerned.”
“Sometimes we don’t know about these strikes until the last minute, or if you get a combination of bad weather and manpower shortage, that can cause problems, but they’re a bit unpredictable.”
Supply chain issues similar to those currently affecting U.S. airlines could also cause problems in Europe. New aircraft not being delivered on time means airlines are “having headaches” planning their peak season schedules, according to Strickland, while a lack of spare parts is delaying repairs.
But despite the warnings, airports in Europe have expressed confidence that the scenes of chaos seen at check-in lobbies and baggage carousels in the summer of 2022 will not be repeated this year. Thousands of Americans with itchy feet will be hoping that confidence is not misplaced.
According to Eurocontrol data, travel between Europe and North America has already returned to pre-pandemic levels with around 1,500 flights crossing the Atlantic daily, while most other regions have been slower to recover.
Claire Irvin, who leads travel coverage for The Times and The Sunday Times, said the soaring demand is to be expected.
“Post-pandemic pent-up demand continues with demographics less affected by the cost-of-living crisis intent on living out the adventures they dreamed of during lockdowns,” she told CBS News. “They are taking their families with them, with multi-generational trips on the rise around the world.”
Irvin pointed to another growing trend that could reflect some level of heightened caution on the part of globetrotters after the mayhem of last summer: More people appear to be opting for the help of travel agents and tour operators, who can provide extra reassurance and support in the event of unforeseen disruptions.
Airlines across the U.S. have dealt with major delays throughout the week, but that’s not stopping people from traveling for the Fourth of July. AAA is expecting over 4 million Americans to fly this weekend. CBS News senior transportation correspondent Kris Van Cleave reports on how airlines are preparing for the surge.
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Another day of severe weather in the Northeast has caused thousands of flight delays and cancellations ahead of the July Fourth weekend. Stranded passengers have been forced to either pay for a hotel or sleep at the gate. CBS News’ Errol Barnett reports from Newark Liberty International Airport.
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The TSA said it is preparing for potentially record-breaking numbers of flyers this summer. Meanwhile, airlines say they’ve added thousands of pilots in efforts to avoid the delays and cancellations that happened last summer. Kris Van Cleave reports.
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If your flight gets delayed or canceled and the weather is not to blame, then U.S. airlines may soon have to compensate you. A new proposal from President Biden would require airlines to go beyond just a ticket refund. Brian Sumers, founder and editor of The Airline Observer, discusses what passengers can expect.
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New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport’s Terminal 1 will remain closed Friday due to electrical issues, the airport said late Thursday.
Friday’s closure comes after a Thursday night power outage at the terminal disrupted more than 100 flights at the city’s busiest airport. The airport tweeted that an electrical panel failure, which caused a small fire that was immediately extinguished, was responsible for the overnight outage.
JFK Terminal 1 will remain closed on 2/17 due to electrical issues as the Port Authority continues working with the terminal’s operator to restore flight operations as quickly as possible. Travelers should check with their carriers for flight status before coming to the airport.
Some 30 flights into or out of JFK were canceled on Friday, according to data from FlightAware, a website that tracks flight cancellations and delays.
“Travelers should check with their carriers for flight status before coming to the airport,” JFK officials tweeted in announcing the terminal’s closure on Friday.
Airport officials are working with the Port Authority to resolve the issue “as quickly as possible,” the airport wrote on Twitter. The airport has been operating affected outbound flights from other terminals, such as Terminal 4, since Thursday, to minimize service disruptions, CBS News New York reported.
Passengers expressed frustration with the delays and cancellations.
“It feels like a movie, like it’s not real,” traveler Isabella Bivas told CBS News New York. “I’m still waiting for them to say it’s a joke.”
Port Authority and JFK spokespeople did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Some inbound international flights were diverted to other airports along the East Coast such as Boston and Newark.
One trans-Pacific flight from Auckland, New Zealand, to New York was forced to turn back due to the outage, with the Boeing 787 making a U-turn at its halfway point, near Hawaii, according to Bloomberg News. Passengers essentially had a 16-hour flight to nowhere.
Here it comes. The 16 hour flight from 🛫 Auckland, to… 🛬 Auckland 😨😨
The aircraft’s turnaround made it the top-tracked flight on Flightradar24, a website that monitors flights across the world, Bloomberg added.
Terminal 1, which opened in the late 1990s, is scheduled to be replaced by a new, $9.5 billion terminal now under construction. Groundbreaking was initially supposed to happen in 2020 but was delayed until last summer by the pandemic.
Along with Air New Zealand, a number of major airlines operate out of Terminal 1, including Air China, Air France, Japan Airlines, Korean Air, Lufthansa, Italy’s ITA Airway, and Turkish Airlines (See here for a list of airlines.) Travelers should consult their airline for flight status information.
A passenger on a Delta Air Lines flight bound for New York from Scotland caught video of what appeared to be smoke or fire shooting from one of the plane’s engines before it was forced to make an emergency landing Friday morning. The Boeing 767, which departed from Edinburgh at 10:50 a.m. local time, was met by a Scottish Fire and Rescue Service crew after making a safe emergency landing at Glasgow’s Prestwick Airport just moments after it took off.
“Operations Control mobilized four appliances to the site, where firefighters remain working to support their partners,” a spokesperson for the fire service said.
UGC
A video from inside the cabin captured what appears to be bright flames coming from one of the plane’s wings, as passengers can be heard panicking in the background.
No authorities have confirmed that there was a fire on any part of the aircraft, and there were no injuries reported. Delta Air Lines confirmed only that there had been a “mechanical issue” with one of the aircraft’s two engines.
“Delta flight 209 from Edinburgh to New York-JFK safely diverted to Glasgow Prestwick Airport,” a spokesperson said. “We apologize to our customers for this inconvenience and are working to get them to their final destinations via Edinburgh.”
According to BBC Scotland journalist Laura Pettigrew, who was on the flight, a loud bang was heard just before the plane was diverted.
“The plane took off and there was a loud engine noise, similar to the noise normally during take-off and landing, but it seemed to continue once we were in the air,” she told BBC News. “When the plane touched down we could see fire trucks and firefighters with hoses rushing towards us.”
Another passenger, Julie Nisbet, said it felt like the plane was just gliding with the engines switched off before they touched down.
“I didn’t think we’d get down safely,” she told STV News. “When we did, we clapped and cheered and whistled.”
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Air travel is returning to normal after a chaotic morning at the nation’s airports. The Federal Aviation Administration ordered a full ground stop for all flights across the country when one of its computer systems failed. CBS News correspondent Kris Van Cleave joins Errol Barnett and Lana Zak with the latest.
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Thousands of flights were delayed in almost every major airport in Florida on Monday due to a computer issue. The FAA said the issue caused a disruption at an air traffic control center in Miami, which controls millions of cubic miles of airspace for commercial flights in the state. Manuel Bojorquez has the details.
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An additional 4,00 flights were canceled Tuesday, as the effects of a deadly winter storm ripples across the U.S. CBS News correspondent Tanya Rivero reported from LaGuardia Airport in New York City.
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The winter storm that disrupted travel plans over the weekend and created an epic pile-on of flight cancellations for Southwest Airlines left the carrier’s passengers “beyond frustrated,” as one put it to CBS DFW. Thousands of families were stranded, with some waiting days to board planes.
Southwest customers at Dallas Love Field expressed disappointment, frustration and anger Monday after facing multiple flight delays and cancellations since before Christmas.
Talia Jones, a Southwest Air customer, told CBS DFW she was “beyond frustrated and hurt because I can’t see my dad. So yeah, it’s very disappointing.”
As of 5 a.m. ET Tuesday, Southwest was responsible for an overwhelming majority of U.S. cancellations for the new day, according to flight tracking website FlightAware.com: 2,495 out of 2,809 for all carriers.
Two-thirds of Southwest’s flights had been canceled as of Monday afternoon, according to FlightAware.
On Monday afternoon, the board at Dallas Love Field, showed every single arrival had been canceled, according to reporter Kelly Laco.
At Chicago’s Midway International Airport – where Southwest is the main carrier – the wait times were high, and patience was running low Monday night, CBS Chicago said.
The situation was described by one traveler as nothing short of a mess. In addition to long lines taking up space, hundreds and hundreds of bags were waiting to be claimed as the cancellations and delays kept piling up.
“It’s been hell,” said Denzil Smothers, whose flight was canceled.
The federal Department of Transportation on Monday said it would investigate the meltdown, saying it was “concerned by Southwest Airlines’ disproportionate and unacceptable rate of cancellations and delays as well as the failure to properly support customers experiencing a cancellation or delay.”
“As more information becomes available the Department will closely examine whether cancellations were controllable and whether Southwest is complying with its customer service plan as well as all other pertinent DOT rules,” the department said in a statement.
Traveler Michael Bauzon and his family planned on flying out of Orlando International Airport on Friday to return home to Indianapolis in time for Christmas on Sunday. Instead, the four spent the holidays in a hotel after their flight was canceled, Bauzon told CBS affiliate WKMG, and were back at the airport on Monday — where they continued to wait.
“This morning we got here at 4:30 for a 7:05 flight, we looked it up, and oh it had just been canceled,” he said, gesturing to a line snaking in front of the Southwest service counter. “It’s a four- to five-hour line … before they can get us on a flight — if they can get us on a flight,” he said.
Passengers lined up by the Southwest Airlines counter at San Francisco International Airport on Dec. 26, 2022.
Tayfun Coskun / Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Widespread storm, outdated tech
In a statement Monday that opened with “heartfelt apologies,” Southwest said that its geography made it “uniquely” vulnerable to the storm, with half of the airports in which it flies affected by winter weather.
“We were fully staffed and prepared for the approaching holiday weekend when the severe weather swept across the continent, where Southwest is the largest carrier in 23 of the top 25 travel markets in the U.S. This forced daily changes to our flight schedule at a volume and magnitude that still has the tools our teams use to recover the airline operating at capacity,” the statement said.
“We anticipate additional changes with an already reduced level of flights as we approach the coming New Year holiday travel period,” it noted.
The company also blames a lack of technology. “Part of what we’re suffering is a lack of tools. We’ve talked an awful lot about modernizing the operation, and the need to do that,” CEO Bob Jordan said in an internal message on Sunday that was reported by several media outlets and the flight attendants’ union.
Jammed phone lines, systems
Southwest directed customers away from jammed phone lines, noting that it was experiencing “system issues” amid elevated demand.
Spokesperson Chris Perry said the airline’s online booking and check-in systems are still operating, but were also jammed because of “abnormally high” volumes of traffic on their site. “We are re-accommodating as many Customers as possible based on available space,” he told CBS News.
As Southwest blamed technological issues, the flight attendants’ union, Transit Workers Union 556, accused the airline of contributing to the problem by underinvesting in technology for years.
“The lack of technology has left the airline relying on manual solutions and personal phone calls, leaving flight attendants on hold with Southwest Airlines for up to 17 hours at a time simply to be released to go home after their trip, or while attempting to secure a hotel room or know where their next trip will be,” the union said in a statement. “While reroutes and rescheduling are understood to be a part of the job in the airline industry, the massive scale of the failure over the past few days points to a shirking of responsibility over many years for investing in and implementing technology that could help solve for many of the issues that plague flight attendants and passengers alike.”
The union and airline have been in contract negotiations for four years.
— With reporting by Zel Elvi, Kathryn Krupnik, Kris Van Cleave and Brian Dakss.
The winter storm that disrupted thousands of travel plans over the weekend has created an epic pile-on of flight cancellations for Southwest Airlines, leaving thousands of families stranded, with some waiting for days to fly back home.
Two-thirds of Southwest’s flights were been canceled as of Monday afternoon, according to flight-tracking website FlightAware — far more than any other airline. With some 2,700 Southwest flights canceled, another 700 were delayed Monday, FlightAware found.
On Monday afternoon, the board at Dallas Love Field, the airline’s main hub, showed every single arrival had been canceled, according to reporter Kelly Laco.
The airline canceled more than 1,600 flights on Sunday, and 1,300 each day last week on Thursday and Friday.
Traveler Michael Bauzon and his family planned on flying out of Orlando International Airport on Friday to return home to Indianapolis in time for Christmas on Sunday. Instead, the four spent the holidays in a hotel after their flight was canceled, Bauzon told CBS affiliate WKMG, and were back at the airport on Monday — where they continued to wait.
“This morning we got here at 4:30 for a 7:05 flight, we looked it up, and oh it had just been canceled,” he said, gesturing to a line snaking in front of the Southwest service counter. “It’s a four- to five-hour line … before they can get us on a flight — if they can get us on a flight,” he said.
Widespread storm, outdated tech
In a statement Monday that opened with “heartfelt apologies,” Southwest said that its geography made it “uniquely” vulnerable to the storm, with half of the airports in which it flies affected by winter weather.
“We were fully staffed and prepared for the approaching holiday weekend when the severe weather swept across the continent, where Southwest is the largest carrier in 23 of the top 25 travel markets in the U.S. This forced daily changes to our flight schedule at a volume and magnitude that still has the tools our teams use to recover the airline operating at capacity,” the statement said.
“We anticipate additional changes with an already reduced level of flights as we approach the coming New Year holiday travel period,” it noted.
The company also blames a lack of technology. “Part of what we’re suffering is a lack of tools. We’ve talked an awful lot about modernizing the operation, and the need to do that,” CEO Bob Jordan said in an internal message on Sunday that was reported by several media outlets and the flight attendants’ union.
Jammed phone lines, systems
Southwest directed customers away from jammed phone lines, noting that it was experiencing “system issues” amid elevated demand.
Spokesperson Chris Perry said the airline’s online booking and check-in systems are still operating, but were also jammed because of “abnormally high” volumes of traffic on their site. “We are re-accommodating as many Customers as possible based on available space,” he told CBS News.
As Southwest blamed technological issues, the flight attendants’ union, Transit Workers Union 556, accused the airline of contributing to the problem by underinvesting in technology for years.
“The lack of technology has left the airline relying on manual solutions and personal phone calls, leaving flight attendants on hold with Southwest Airlines for up to 17 hours at a time simply to be released to go home after their trip, or while attempting to secure a hotel room or know where their next trip will be,” the union said in a statement. “While reroutes and rescheduling are understood to be a part of the job in the airline industry, the massive scale of the failure over the past few days points to a shirking of responsibility over many years for investing in and implementing technology that could help solve for many of the issues that plague flight attendants and passengers alike.”
The union and airline have been in contract negotiations for four years.
