While the weather has been mostly good for travelers flying before and during Christmas this year, some troubling disruptions have once again plagued Southwest Airlines travelers.
This year has been much better than previous years for the millions of people who travel for the holidays. last.Christmas morning, with a ribbon A relatively uneventful weekend.
As of late Monday afternoon, just 157 flights in and out of the United States had been canceled and 2,111 had been delayed, according to tracking website FlightAware.
US airlines have prepared for this holiday season. big wave The airline aimed to boost travel numbers by hiring thousands of pilots, flight attendants and other workers to avoid the delays and cancellations that have crippled travel in 2022. Southwest Airlines debacle More than 2 million people were stranded.
Still, Southwest Airlines was hit with the problem again over the weekend, which was expected to be resolved by Monday. According to FlightAware, 2% of all flights were canceled on Monday, but 16% (693 flights in total) were delayed.
On Saturday and Sunday, Southwest Airlines had 426 flights canceled and 2,689 flights delayed, according to FlightAware data.
A Southwest Airlines spokesperson said the cancellation was due to heavy fog in Chicago on Saturday and Sunday that prevented planes from landing, necessitating additional flight cancellations on Monday before a full recovery is expected on Tuesday. He said it could become.
Automobile club AAA predicted that 115 million Americans will travel at least 50 miles (80 kilometers) from home by plane or car between Saturday and New Year’s Day. This is an increase of 2% from last year.
More than 2.6 million people were screened by the Transportation Security Administration on Thursday, according to TSA records. Data for the weekend has not yet been released.
at the end of thanksgivingthe number of people using U.S. airports is at a record high, with the TSA screening a record 2.9 million people in a single day on Sunday, November 26th, surpassing the pre-COVID-19 number in 2019. Ta.
Compared to last year’s holiday season, milder weather is helping air travel schedules stick.
But on the ground, snow and ice in the Midwest and Great Plains made road conditions treacherous in parts of the country on Christmas Day. Much of Nebraska and South Dakota were hit by a snowstorm, and parts of eastern North Dakota and South Dakota were hit by an ice storm, the National Weather Service said.
The busiest days are expected to be Saturday, Dec. 23, and the following Thursday, Dec. 28, according to traffic data provider INRIX.