Aug. 29 (UPI) — The U.S. Department of Transportation said Thursday the year-to-date flight cancellation rate is 1.6% and below pre-pandemic levels as Americans head into the Labor Day weekend, the unofficial end of summer.
“Despite significant flight disruptions in July brought on by the global CrowdStrike outage, summer storms, and record-breaking air travel volumes, the year-to-date cancelation rate remains below 2022 and pre-pandemic levels,” the DOT said in a statement.
Summer 2024 saw the highest air travel volumes on record in the United States, according to the DOT. Air travel averaged 2.7 million people a day.
“The Transportation Security Administration has already screened 239.8 million people since Memorial Day weekend, which is an average of 2.7 million per day,” the DOT statement said. “The top 10 busiest travel days in the agency’s history have all occurred this year since May 2024, and a new milestone was reached on July 7, when more than 3 million people were screened in a single day for the first time.”
At the height of the pandemic in 2020, 7.2% of flights were canceled, according to the DOT.
Following the CrowdStrike outage transportation Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg alerted airlines that they have legal responsibilities to passengers during flight disruptions.
Airlines must clearly inform passengers of refund rights and must automatically pay cash refunds rather than vouchers or credits when flights are cancelled or disrupted.
Airlines also must make it easy for passengers to arrange free rebooking, hotels, meals and/transportation to and from hotels if disruptions are caused by an airlines issue.
The DOT said a new Biden-Harris administration rule also requires airlines to fully disclose junk fees and bans “bait and switch” advertising tactics.
Buttigieg shared a video on X with flight travel tips on the cusp of the Labor Day weekend.
“We’re expecting record air travel numbers as we head into Labor Day weekend,” Buttigieg wrote on X. “Here are a few simple but important things to remember if you’re flying soon. Safe travels!”
In August 2023 the DOT reported flight cancellations dropped slightly as global air travel numbers reached pre-pandemic levels.
