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Flight delays and cancellations have been in the news recently. You might have been affected by weather or staffing issues that disrupted your travel.
Who is at fault? Airlines? The government? Weather? Yes?
I spoke with someone who works in airline operations. This person provided me with their take, observations, and recommendations for travel during at least the rest of the summer.
Air Travel: It’s Baaaack!
“This is the first year that travel is truly ‘back,’” they said. “It’s the first time we’ve truly seen major delays since the pandemic.”
The Department of Transportation and Secretary Pete Buttigieg and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) have been scrutinized for alleged problems such as understaffing and outdated software.
The problems, though, aren’t one specific person’s fault or relatively recent.
“The FAA has known for years about their chronic understaffing problems,” they said. “The FAA just can’t hire people and train them fast enough. For example, to work at New York’s air traffic control center, the time between starting the job to graduating to becoming a full-time air traffic controller is three years.
“But,” they added, “hiring and training can be affected by external issues—for example, pandemics such as COVID-19. Airlines weren’t the only part of the travel sector from which many senior members retired during the pandemic. Air traffic control also saw a bunch of early retirements.”
Airlines and the FAA
People are eager to travel right now. That’s no secret.
“Airlines are pushing out tons of flights to meet demand,” my friend said. “Collaboration between the airlines and FAA isn’t as good as it used to be.”
However, there’s only so much capacity and workload for airspace.
For example, our ops person told us the FAA asked airlines to reduce the number of flights operating in the northeast because of staffing issues and weather.
“It’s just too much traffic for the controllers to move. There’s too much weather and too many planes,” they said. “Those problems are made worse with some inexperience and understaffing.”
Safety
So, does that present any safety concerns?
“The new controllers know how to manage irregular operations issues safely,” they assured us. “But some new controllers are maybe a little skittish and unfamiliar with these situations compared to a veteran controlled who retired a couple of years ago. They’re, perhaps, a little extra cautious.”
Passengers Can Help
No, travelers can’t put on headsets and start guiding planes. But when problems arise, they very much can play a part in making sure bad situations don’t get worse.
“Please be patient and understanding,” the ops person recommends. “Try to relax. Yelling doesn’t fix anything. Gate agents, pilots, and customer service representatives aren’t at fault when problems arise.
“Everyone wants to get you to your destination — as safely as possible while abiding by legal standards.”
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The media and these websites badly hurt aviation. Instead of showing a sad delayed person on a ledge you should show someone smiling who made it safe to their destination. A few hours late or even the next day…. maybe it happens…weather is weather. Air travel is miraculous and here in the USA, billions and billions of people moved safely over the passed 14 years only ONE death.
The news should be. Airlines are doing an amazing job keeping finding a way to get millions of people around the country all day around bad weather and ATC constraints.
Everyone is so spoiled. All airlines are taking huge financial baths to get everyone where they are going with safety and as on time as possible. Delays are expensive. No wants them but everyone has gotten so spoiled rotten , unforgiving and obnoxious and I thank the media.
This is not true. Airlines took huge payouts from the government to keep them afloat during covid. This money was to be used to retain staff and improve the airlines ability to operate. Instead it went to the bottom line to enrich shareholders and executives. The airlines are now whining they are losing money. They are lying. Customer satisfaction is not even in the top 10 of airlines priority. They are just setting themselves up for the next government handout, oh no climate change is preventing us from providing consistent reliable even enjoyable service give us more money or we will have to move seats closer together. And the cycle continues.
You’re so right! Airlines have been pocketing the profits for years and placating the shareholders rather than reinvesting money into newer technology, or at least technology that’s not hanging on by a thread and is one failure away from a catastrophe (remember the Delta and Southwest computer system crashes?).
I fully agree that we pay what amounts to a “reduced fare” in comparison to flying costs 20-30 years ago, but when companies are leaning to the point of employee exhaustion and not compensating them properly, we get reduced customer service and increased irate/irritable passengers, crew, and other employees.
And with regards to safety (to the OP of this comment thread), I doubt anybody takes that for granted, though to be frank, all businesses, especially airlines and other mass transit, continually say, “safety is our number one priority”, and that’s a load of bull. Safety isn’t their #1 priority. Profits and paying the CEO and shareholders are a company’s #1 priority. Companies can and will do the bare minimum to ensure safety, because they have to, but certainly will not do more than they have to. Safety is, at best, secondary. But if planes start falling from the skies or suddenly can’t handle a landing then safety, temporarily, will take top billing if a company wants to stay in business.
Only one death? Really?
I believe the reference is specific to fatalities on domestic commercial airlines
It’s still a bit higher than just one. (And, yes, I agree that aviation — especially in the US is incredibly safe. I didn’t insinuate anything to the contrary in the post.)
I was a “victim” of weather this past Sunday. My girlfriend, myself, and her parents were supposed to fly back home from Vermont via LaGuardia. A 12 PM departure turned into 12:30, then 1, then 2, then cancelled. Well damn.
Like everyone else I was scrambling to find us a flight home that day. Or the next day. Once the flight was cancelled I was simultaneously texting a Delta agent while trying to get options with the gate agent. I finally walked away from the gate after I was told there wasn’t anything available that day and thanked the gate agent for their time, and I also apologized to the Delta agent I was texting for taking up their time because I knew they were being inundated with messages, to which they said, “thank you for being understanding”.
I then called Delta and spoke with an agent and we went over options; all westbound flights were full Sunday. Monday was booked solid, too. My girlfriend and I finally settled on a 6 AM flight Tuesday (her parents stayed a couple more days with family and are flying back today). We had a 4 hour layover in Atlanta which was fine to me because the weather was supposed to be nice (it was) so I decided to check out the F concourse Sky Club to complete the circuit as that was the last Sky Club for me to visit in Atlanta (and it was worth it). Then we arrived home in the afternoon.
I saw a little bit of ugliness and people chafed about the flight being cancelled. Overall it wasn’t bad but still a few people were causing the gate agents’ eyes to roll and sigh heavily. I’ve seen worse, so this was a welcome change in huimanity.
I don’t know where you guys are getting your data but Delta is “hugely” profitable for the 12 months ending March 31, 2023. Delta is not taking a huge financial “bath”.
“Delta Air Lines gross profit for the twelve months ending March 31, 2023 was $18.753B, a 81.86% increase year-over-year. Delta Air Lines annual gross profit for 2022 was $17.166B, a 131.85% increase from 2021.”
I agree with Chris’ story. We can’t change the weather or how the airlines and the FAA operate (especially in the near term) but we can become more understanding.