Flight cancellations and delays continued across the country on Sunday during an already chaotic July 4 weekend for travellers.
At least 267 flights to, from or within the United States had been canceled as of 3:16 p.m. EST, and nearly 2,300 were delayed, air travel tracking site FlightAware.com reported.
According to the site, the bulk of cancellations and delays occurred inside or outside of China, Canada and Europe.
London Heathrow and Frankfurt had a combined 494 flight delays, while two notorious airports – Toronto’s Pearson and Amsterdam’s Schiphol – had a combined 484 delays and 72 cancellations, FlightAware reported.
American Airlines announced to its employees on Wednesday that it would suspend all ticket sales for flights departing from Schiphol, according to travel website The Points Guy.
Tickets are no longer available for US flights departing from Amsterdam between July 7 and July 31; tickets already purchased will be honoured.
The situation at Toronto’s Pearson airport is so bad that it was recently reported that a traveler was waiting for his luggage there — 16 days after arriving.
New York airports reported relative calm in terms of delays and cancellations – although a bomb threat forced an evacuation at JFK airport, where 10% of flights were delayed.
Newark Airport reported only 4% of flight delays and 3% of cancellations. At LaGuardia airport, only six flights were canceled and 38 delayed (8%).
AAA predicted that 3.5 million Americans planned to travel over the holiday weekend.
But airlines are overbooked and understaffed, causing serious delays for travellers.
There were at least 3,765 delays on US flights – including to and from the country – and 612 cancellations on Saturday, nearly triple the daily average of 210 abandoned flights.
The lack of service rivaled a day earlier, when more than 4,900 flight delays and nearly 500 cancellations were reported nationwide on Friday night.
