Airlines and millions of Americans battled flight delays Sunday as a record number of passengers took to the skies on the busiest day of air travel in U.S. history.
The Transportation Security Administration said it screened 2.91 million passengers on Sunday, beating the previous record of 2.88 million on June 30. It has been a busy year for air travel—seven of the 10 busiest days in history have come in the past six months. The remaining three were in 2019.
There were significant delays at some major airports, most notably in the Northeast, but few cancellations. It seems most travelers made it back successfully after the Thanksgiving weekend.
More than 7,600 flights into, out of, or within the U.S. were delayed Sunday, according to data from the flight tracker FlightAware, compared with 4,700 on Saturday and 3,200 on Friday. Flights that arrive at least 15 minutes behind schedule are considered delayed.
But significantly for both passengers and airlines, cancellations were low. Just 55 flights were canceled out of the 45,000 estimated by the Federal Aviation Administration for Sunday.
New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport was the worst affected in terms of departures, with 265 flights delayed, or 36% of those scheduled. People landing at Boston’s Logan International were the most likely to be delayed: 173 flights, or 25% of the schedule, arrived late.
Southwest Airlines
(ticker: LUV) had the most delayed flights, at 1,376, or 30% of its schedule, though just one was canceled.
JetBlue Airways
(JBLU) had the highest share of flights delayed at 43%. The comparable figures for
American Airlines
(AAL),
Delta Air Lines
(DAL), and
United Airlines
(UAL) were 26%, 20%, and 19%.
While delays are far from ideal, it seems the major airlines have avoided the sort of major disruption that can affect earnings. Airline stocks were largely unmoved early Monday.
Write to Callum Keown at callum.keown@barrons.com
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