This weekend, as Americans fly to celebrate the nation's birthday, Delta Air Lines wants to remind passengers to be patient before boarding one of their red, white, and blue aircraft.
Days before the Fourth of July holiday weekend begins, the Atlanta-based carrier took the extraordinary step of announcing that it anticipates "operational issues," and on Tuesday it issued a travel waiver for flights between July 1 and July 4.
The airline stated in a blog post that "Delta workers are working around the clock to rebuild Delta's operation while making it as resilient as possible to limit the rippling effect of interruptions."
"However, some operational difficulties are anticipated over the holiday weekend.
With the help of this special waiver, Delta passengers will have more freedom to schedule their trip around congested periods, bad weather, and other factors without having concerned about incurring additional costs.
Recently, Delta's business has had trouble, especially on the weekends.
The airline cancelled hundreds of flights over the last weekend, significantly more than any other American airline.
The action highlights the larger issues the industry has faced generally in building up operations since the pandemic's peak.
Delta anticipates breaking its passenger records from the epidemic era this weekend.
New pandemic-era records have been set at Transportation Security Administration checkpoints in the days leading up to the holiday weekend.
According to the airline's blog post, "Delta is expected to transport customer volumes from Friday, July 1, through Monday, July 4, not seen since before the pandemic as people seek to connect with the globe."
According to Cirium scheduling data, Delta has around 11,000 flights planned between July 1 and July 4.
This figure increases to just over 17,000 flights when Delta's partner regional airlines are taken into account.
Although Delta has experienced the biggest operational issues, it is not by any means the only one.
As a lot of factors come together to create issues during a time of extremely high travel demand, other airlines have significantly increased the number of flights they have cancelled or delayed.
The Federal Aviation Administration, which oversees the nation's air traffic management system, and airlines have battled accusations about what is really at fault.
Airlines claim that the FAA is understaffing ATC facilities, while the FAA counters that the airlines are overbooking flights in comparison to the mann, particularly pilots, that are available.
The bulk of cancellations and delays, according to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, "have nothing to do with air traffic control staffing," he said on "NBC Nightly News" on Tuesday.
The statement made reference to a Florida ATC site that has experienced staffing and other concerns, which airlines and the FAA discussed at a meeting in May.
It could be advisable to attempt and switch to the first flight of the day, if feasible, if you're flying with Delta or any other airline this weekend. Those flights have the lowest likelihood of being delayed or cancelled.
Additionally, if you're flying before a cruise or a significant event, try to give yourself a little extra time to get where you're going after your flight.
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