US Transport Secretary Pete Buttigieg has blamed thousands of flight delays and cancellations over the Fourth of July holiday weekend on the weather.
More than 1,322 flights were cancelled and 89,500 delayed this weekend, according to monitoring site, FlightAware. That’s on top of the 24,000 flights delayed and 5,600 cancelled between Monday and Wednesday. On Thursday, the busiest travel day, 770 flights were cancelled and 31,413 delayed.
“[Flight delays and cancellations] really shot up at the first part of the week, largely because of severe weather hitting some of our key hubs,” Mr Buttigieg told CBS.
“I think most passengers understand that no one can control the weather, but anything that’s under the control of the airlines and anything that we can do on the FAA side, we need to continue pushing to make sure that there’s the smoothest possible experience for air passengers everywhere.”
While large parts of the country were battling stormy conditions and smoke from Canadian wildfires, some airline executives also pointed to staffing shortages at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby made it clear where he was placing blame, reported by Travel + Leisure magazine.
"The FAA frankly failed us this weekend,” he wrote, blaming the the agency for "staffing issues and their ability to manage traffic".
Mr Kirby added that the "FAA reduced the arrival rates by 40 per cent and departure rates by 75 per cent," and that those reductions were "certainly a reflection of understaffing/lower experience at the FAA."
"It led to massive delays, cancellations, diversions, as well as crews and aircraft out of position," he wrote. "That put everyone behind the eight ball when weather actually did hit on Sunday and was further compounded by FAA staffing shortages Sunday evening."
Mr Kirby was later forced to apologise when it emerged that he took a private jet out of New York this week while United customers were stranded at airports across the country.
Even stranded passengers turned their furor toward the FAA.
“This is not all Delta’s fault,” said Sonia Hendrix who was stranded for four days while trying to fly home from Colorado to New York. She spent one night in Atlanta and two in Orlando due to delays and cancellations.
“Their pilots and flight crews were working very hard," she told the Associated Press.
"I blame the FAA. I blame Buttigieg for sitting on his hands and not staffing up air traffic control centers sooner.”
One traveler, flying to visit family to celebrate Eid, explained on Twitter that her flight was delayed for days, then cancelled, ruining her holiday plans.
“My @JetBlue flight was delayed by TWO DAYS so not only did i miss celebrating Eid with my family, but i’m also missing the wedding i’m flying out for hahahahha im gonna cry,” she wrote.
Another video posted online showed a United Airlines pilot apologising to stranded travelers and saying that his co-pilot was held up due to scheduling issues.
“My flight is delayed to Dallas but shoutout to this Captain on flight UA2446 for coming out from the gate and apologizing for the delay since his Co-pilot is delayed due to scheduling,” the Twitter user wrote.
“Kindness goes along way and this guy gets it.”
Secretary Buttigieg has previously said that the "summer is going to be a stress test on the system," referring to FAA's ability to maintain the nation's air travel logistics.
Fourth of July weekend is the pinnacle of that test with record numbers of air and road travelers in recent days, according to AAA data.
“We’ve never projected travel numbers this high for Independence Day weekend,” Paula Twidale, senior vice president of AAA Travel, told NBC News.
Despite fewer available flights and higher ticket prices, she said, “consumers are not cutting back on travel this summer.”
