Jul 3, 2023 at 3:29 PM BST
Updated 2 hours ago
Image source: Getty Images
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According to TSA, Sunday was the busiest air travel day ever
Travel chaos reigns at US airports on the eve of Independence Day, and extreme weather warnings apply to more than 100 million Americans.
More than 1,700 flights were delayed or canceled on Monday.
What follows is one of the busiest air travel weekends of all time. On Sunday, more passengers were checked at US airports than ever before.
Severe storms threaten much of the eastern US, while a heatwave continues in the south and west.
United Airlines remained the airline hardest hit by the delays on Monday, with over 200 flights postponed, according to the FlightAware website.
United experienced more than 5,000 delays and cancellations in the past week, far exceeding the number of all other US airlines.
Chief Executive Scott Kirby was forced to apologize Friday after chartering a private jet from New York to Colorado to avoid being held up by airline delays.
In a letter to employees Saturday, he said the thunderstorms at United’s largest hub in New Jersey created a “prolonged restricted operating environment” and “one of the most operationally challenging weeks I’ve experienced in my entire career.”
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said Sunday the reason US travel was “so chaotic” was the severe weather, which he said had “put enormous pressure on the system.”
He told CBS that the Federal Aviation Administration will hire 1,500 new air traffic controllers this year and another 1,800 next year.
Ahead of the July 4 long weekend, industry officials had feared a new 5G rollout around airports could disrupt aircraft technology.
However, a spokesman for the Department of Transportation told CBS News that there had been no major flight disruptions related to this.
Thunderstorms — some with large hail — were forecast Monday across eastern Mississippi to Massachusetts, as well as more northerly states like Montana and Minnesota.
The heatwave will continue across the southern US, with record-breaking numbers expected to move along the West Coast to California and Oregon.
More than 150,000 residents in the U.S. Midwest were still without power after the weekend’s storms, including over 40,000 people in Missouri.