Over 2,500 Flights Were Cancelled Over the Weekend, Here's What You Should Know

Delays and cancellations have continued well into the week too.

1000 Words/Shutterstock
1000 Words/Shutterstock
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Our flight woes are far from over. In fact, this just might be the tip of the iceberg, with 2,500 cancellations throughout Memorial Day weekend and even more delays, Reuters reports.

Airlines blamed weather in Florida, New York, and the mid-Atlantic for both the delays and cancellations, which extended beyond the weekend and into Wednesday. However, recent flight issues have been connected to air traffic problems and staffing shortages. On Monday alone, travelers endured 422 cancellations into or within the US, FlightAware reports. Meanwhile, there were at least 50 cancellations and over 400 delays on Tuesday. 

While Delta was forced to cancel 700 flights over the four-day period, the carrier tried to cancel them "at least 24 hours in advance of departure time wherever possible," the company told Reuters. Then 94% of those Sunday travelers were booked on new flights within an average of 10 hours from their intended departure.

While the cancellations have eased up, Delta still canceled 21 flights as of Wednesday, marking the most of any other US carrier. 

This should hardly come as a shock, though, as experts predicted as much. In fact, airlines have already gone as far as to proactively trim back on seasonal schedules in response to continued travel chaos. Just earlier this week, Delta Air Lines announced its own plan to scale back by 100 daily flights between July 1 and August 7.

"More than any time in our history, the various factors currently impacting our operation—weather and air traffic control, vendor staffing, increased COVID case rates contributing to higher-than-planned unscheduled absences in some work groups—are resulting in an operation that isn't consistently up to the standards Delta has set for the industry in recent years," Chief Customer Experience Officer Allison Ausband said in a recent statement.

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Megan Schaltegger is a Staff Writer on the News team at Thrillist.