Fourth of July travel: Flight cancellations continue as holiday nears
Delta, United airlines were leading other major US carriers in total disruptions on Monday
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Airline passengers, now paying significantly more for airfare, are being pummeled by numerous flight cancelations and delays as the Fourth of July holiday weekend nears.
More than 1,600 trips in, out of and across the U.S. have already been delayed as of noon Eastern Time on Monday, according to flight-tracking site FlightAware.
Meanwhile, over 730 flights were completely scrapped as of noon Eastern Time. Delta and United Airlines were leading all other U.S. major passenger carriers in the total number of flight disruptions.
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Delta already had over 200 canceled flights by noon Monday while United had just more than 120, according to FlightAware.
Travelers already faced hundreds of cancelations and delays over the weekend. There were over 6,800 delays and over 800 cancelations across the U.S. on Sunday.
"Delta teams continue to safely manage through compounding factors affecting our operations, including higher-than-planned unscheduled absences in some of our work groups, weather and air traffic control constraints," Delta Air Lines told FOX Business in regard to its weekend cancelations.
Canceling a flight "is always our last resort, and we sincerely apologize to our customers for any disruption to their travel plans," Delta added.
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Monday's cancelations, according to Delta, are largely driven by weather conditions. The carrier said it proactively posted a waiver Sunday evening.
Meanwhile, American Airlines replied to a concerned traveler on Twitter that thunderstorms were causing disruptions at New York's LaGuardia Airport.
Representatives for United did not immediately respond to FOX Business' request for comment.
It's a harsh reality for the record number of travelers hitting airports across the nation this summer to take long-awaited trips.
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) projected that passenger volumes this summer "will match and may occasionally exceed those of 2019 for the first time since the pandemic began."
On Monday, TSA spokesperson Lisa Farbstein tweeted that more than 2.46 million people were screened at airports nationwide on Sunday. It was the highest checkpoint volume reported since Feb. 11, 2020, when over 2.5 million people were screened, according to Farbstein.
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Airlines already struggled with bad weather and shortages of workers, especially pilots, leading to widespread cancellations over the Memorial Day holiday weekend, which typically kicks off the summer travel season.
In a few days, over 47 million people are expected to travel for the Fourth of July holiday weekend. About 3.55 million of those people are expected to fly from Friday through Monday.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.