DALLAS — Robert Hopkins got ahead of the summer travel rush with a trip to Scandanavia to celebrate his 27th wedding anniversary with his wife and escape the Texas heat.
He hopes he can avoid any travel fireworks on Independence Day when he flies back home to Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport on American Airlines, trying to navigate customs, busy terminals and packed flights during the busiest travel weekend in more than two years.
“I’m currently worried about flying out of Oslo as daily news reports show check-in queues out the door,” Hopkins, a military historian and retired health care executive, said via direct message from Norway.
Airlines and travel officials are bracing for the busiest travel weekend of the summer, a vacation stretch already marred by mass cancellations blamed on everything from pilot shortages and bad weather to air traffic control staffing and poor planning.
Airlines, such as regional carriers owned by American Airlines, have put out calls for bonus pay. Delta Air Lines is offering passengers free flight changes as it anticipates “operational challenges“ over the weekend, an unusual move usually held in reserve for adverse weather events such as snow storms and hurricanes. The head of the pilots union at Southwest Airlines is warning that the carrier has scheduled too many flights and that pilots are already fatigued at this early point in the summer. Airlines and government officials in charge of air traffic control are pointing fingers over who is responsible for delays.
By any indication, this summer has been rough on travelers. Airlines have canceled more than 18,500 flights since the start of Memorial Day weekend, about 2.7% of all departures, according to data provided by FlightAware.com. On-time arrival rates have dipped, too, with 24% of flights on the nation’s mainline and regional airlines coming in late.
Travel planners and industry watchers say it’s been the worst summer in memory as airlines try to get back to the levels they were flying before the COVID-19 pandemic, even with worker shortages and supply chain issues.
“It’s not overblown this year for once,” said Brett Snyder, a travel consultant who runs the CrankyFlier.com blog. “It’s bad to fly right now.”
“It has been the summer of travel discontent,” said Jim Strong, a Dallas travel agent with Strong Travel Services.
“I’ve been in the industry since 1985, and I’ve never seen a summer like this,” said William McGee, a traveler rights advocate and a senior fellow with the American Economic Liberties Project. “The cancellations won’t stop.”
DFW International Airport and Dallas Love Field could be pain points for travelers this weekend. The two airports have 321,000 passengers scheduled to take seats on planes Friday, the busiest day of the summer schedule. DFW is the primary hub for Fort Worth-based American Airlines and where a majority of traffic is from connecting customers. Love Field is the headquarters for Southwest Airlines and the carrier’s fifth-busiest airport.
Connecting flights could be most troublesome for passengers, McGee said, since an extra flight adds layers of uncertainty for cancellations and delays.
“I know connecting flights are less expensive, but try to get a direct flight if you can,” he said. “But even that is hard these days because airlines will sell you a direct flight and then change your schedule a few weeks later.”
The U.S. air travel system is expected to see an average of 2.6 million passengers a day between Thursday and Monday, according to Hopper. That would be 5% busier than the next busiest day of the last two years — the 2.46 million passengers who passed through Transportation Security Administration airport checkpoints on Sunday.
Pilots, flight attendants and even airline executives anticipated strains months ago when demand began to pick up as the last major COVID-19 wave passed through the U.S. Delta and Southwest Airlines have chopped flights from schedules, acknowledging they weren’t prepared for the number of flights they had planned.
“We’ve been hard at work to prepare for this busy season and have taken numerous steps aimed toward supporting operational performance,” Southwest Airlines spokesman Chris Perry said in a prepared statement. “The schedule is built for the staffing we have, and the level of staffing determines our schedule.”
Meanwhile, airfare prices are up 34%, hotel prices are up 36% and gas prices are at record highs, according to travel website Hopper.com.
Strong, the Dallas travel agent, said higher prices lead to greater expectations for travelers, even though supply chain problems and labor shortages beset the entire hospitality industry — from airlines and restaurants to hotels and rental car firms.
“People definitely want to get on the move, they want to get out and enjoy themselves,” Strong said. “They have spent so much time taking care of others that they want someone to take care of them.”
Airport restaurants are still scrambling for workers, even after raising wages over the last 12 months.
“We can’t get many people that want to work on Sunday,” Chalmer McWilliams, who runs three McDonald’s restaurants at DFW Airport, said in May. “And who can blame them? In this market, they can choose where and when they want to work.”
High prices, busy crowds and lackluster service haven’t dissuaded customers, who are often locked into narrow travel windows by school and work schedules.
“We’re not seeing major shifts in consumer habits at this point in the summer,” said Axel Hefer, CEO of travel booking website Trivago. “We predict that consumers have had their summer holidays planned and booked for some time now, and nothing will keep them away from those trips.”
That pressure from passengers has left airlines and government leaders pointing fingers at who is responsible for the difficulties in delivering passengers and landing planes on time.
The airline industry sent a letter to the Department of Transportation and Secretary Pete Buttigieg on June 24, complaining about short staffing at air traffic control towers, congested airspace and excessive weather delays.
“The industry is actively and nimbly doing everything possible to create a positive customer experience since it is in an airline’s inherent interest to keep customers happy so they return for future business,” Airlines for America CEO Nick Calio said in the letter. “However, not every air traffic variable is within an airline’s control.”
The letter has caught the attention of the Federal Aviation Administration and Buttigieg, who have taken issue with blaming airspace regulators, particularly when airlines are facing staffing shortages after getting more than $54 billion in government stimulus during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I expect the airlines to be working right now to address these issues,” Buttigieg told NBC Nightly News on Tuesday. “Look, some of these things we know are long term — the pipeline of talent development for pilots — but a realistic schedule and good customer service, that’s something that should be delivered right away. That’s a responsibility that the airlines have.”
