According to online tracker FlightAware, while flight cancellations are down 14 percent this summer compared to last year, delays and frustrations have increased.
“It was canceled. “We don’t know why and they won’t take us for two days,” one passenger told CBS, referring to the situation with his flight.
This week, the news channel recalled, the House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a bipartisan bill aimed at regulating airlines’ obligations to their customers at a time of increasing disruption and dysfunction in the sector.
Transport Secretary Pete Buttigieg told reporters that while airlines have no control over the weather, they do have to uphold certain basic customer service standards.
Airlines are blaming the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in part for the shortage of staff and air traffic controllers.
According to the FAA, adverse weather conditions and flight volume were the top causes of delays in 2023, and it expects to hire an additional 1,800 air traffic controllers over the next year. npg/dfm