The Labor Day travel weekend has gotten off to a sluggish start, with hundreds of flights — either coming into or leaving the United States — being canceled, and thousands more incurring delays.
For domestic flights, 346 cancellations have been announced for trips coverings Friday through Monday, and 8,228 flights were delayed for Friday and Saturday, according to the airline-tracking website Flightaware.com.
The numbers are considerably higher for international flights, with Flightaware reporting 7,263 cancellations and nearly 35,400 delays for the weekend.
Inclement weather has factored into some of the cancellations and delays.
Also, a contingent of pilots affiliated with the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) began picketing ahead of Labor Day weekend — consistently one of the busiest American travel weekends — calling for improved working conditions.
"We're asking all ALPA pilots to join us for an ALPA-wide informational picket to show the public, our lawmakers, and our airlines that all airline pilots stand together in support of the profession-wide goal of improved working conditions and benefits," the union recently wrote.
The Labor Day delays/cancellations may seem high, but it's not a significant departure from four months ago. For Memorial Day alone (May 29), more than 340 flights were canceled and 1,000-plus trips were delayed.
The inflation surge in America has affected the airline industry, as well. According to reports, flight fares for April and May were, on average, 19% higher than for comparable trips during March.
Buoyed by airlines companies and governmental entities easing COVID-19-related restrictions, though, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) still anticipates a global surge in flight bookings for 2023 — perhaps reaching or even surpassing the pre-pandemic numbers of 2019.
"We're seeing very strong bookings," IATA Director General Willie Walsh told Reuters back in May. "Certainly all the airline CEOs that I'm talking to are seeing not just good demand for year-end travel but they continue to see demand as they looked through the year."
Walsh then added: "I don't think we should be distracted from the fact that we are seeing a strong recovery, and I think that recovery will gather momentum as we go through the rest of this year into 2023."
Last month, the Senate — led by Sens. Ed Markey, D-Mass., Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. — introduced a piece of legislation, the Cash Refunds for Flight Cancellations Act, which would require airlines to provide passengers with refunds or vouchers within 30 days of a flight cancellation.
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