Travel on the final major holiday weekend of the season went off with equal ease after a summer marked as much by flight cancellations and delays as the trips passengers ultimately were able to take.
The five biggest U.S. airlines experienced significantly fewer delays during the weekend than they did throughout the summer's early holiday weekends around Memorial Day and the Fourth of July.
According to FlightAware data, there were 76% fewer canceled flights on American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, JetBlue Airways, Southwest Airlines, and United Airlines between Thursday and Sunday afternoon as compared to the same travel days preceding the Fourth of July.
Additionally, compared to the same travel time leading up to Memorial Day, there were 81% fewer cancellations on those five carriers.
It was a welcome surprise during a season when itineraries were too frequently changed as airlines attempted to meet demand that had not been seen in years while battling staffing shortages, air traffic control delays, and the perennially troublesome summer thunderstorms. Labor Day weekend is frequently seen as the unofficial end to the summer travel season.
A more relaxed weekend for travel
While there is no denying that there were millions of passengers traveling each day during the weekend, airlines are not experiencing the same level of demand as they did earlier in the summer as a result of people returning to their regular schedules.
Families in particular are affected by this, as many have children who are now enrolled in school.
In comparison to the days leading up to the Memorial Day vacation, TSA agents checked a little bit fewer people between Thursday and Saturday; nonetheless, passenger volume was down more than 10% from those days before to the Fourth of July.
That is not unusual.
The subsequent two holidays are typically busy for travel.
In reality, the last week as a whole shown that after months of high demand, the influx of travelers at airports has started to lessen a little.
Since March 29, Tuesday, August 30, has had the lowest volume of air travel.
What will come next for air travel?
While there's no denying that fewer people ease the burden on airlines and guarantee there are more seats available for those who do experience delays, a decline in passenger traffic of just a few percentage points cannot fully account for the improvement over past holiday weekends.
Consider the airline Delta.
The Atlanta-based airline canceled 211 flights on the Friday before Memorial Day weekend.
With 117 cancellations on the popular Fourth of July Friday, the airline made progress before the holiday.
Just five flights were canceled by Delta on Friday before the Labor Day holiday.
Airlines are also operating on tighter timetables.
In an effort to increase reliability and make sure they're flying a manageable amount of routes, many carriers have lowered their schedules.
American Airlines will soon see one of these reductions.
It happens at a time when carriers are being closely inspected by the US Department of Transportation.
Remember that it was the difficulties on the first holiday weekend of the season that prompted Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to meet with airline executives and push for improved dependability and transparency.
The department also just launched a new web page that outlines the rights travelers have in the event of significant disruptions.
It will be interesting to see how airlines continue to recover as summer gives way to fall, how strong travel demand maintains after several busy months, and whether airfare continues to decline after some recent hopeful indicators, opening up prospects for fantastic autumn travel offers.
In conclusion
However much things have changed from earlier this summer for this holiday weekend, there are still some issues to be concerned about.
Air travel, along with much of the travel sector, may have to wait until 2023 to see even more notable changes because airlines are still struggling with a pilot shortage.
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