US Flight Disruption Haunts Indian Travelers’ Summer Plans

The prolonged delays, lasting several hours, have posed a significant challenge for airlines as they struggle with a surge in passenger numbers, while also raising concerns for the upcoming July 4 holiday.

New Delhi: US airports are dealing with widespread flight delays this week due to thunderstorms in the Northeast. The prolonged delays, lasting several hours, have posed a significant challenge for airlines as they struggle with a surge in passenger numbers, while also raising concerns for the upcoming July 4 holiday.

The situation has also created severe difficulties for passengers traveling to India.

Samrat Ghosh experienced the most harrowing time this week as he traveled for 96 hours to reach his home country. What made it, even more, was heartening for him was that he was accompanied by his parents. The family is visiting India after an absence of nearly five years.

According to Ghosh, they encountered multiple delays caused by the thunderstorms, which also raised concerns for the family as they had a connecting flight to Doha.

“Our journey began with a 20-minute delay in boarding the American Airlines flight from Charlotte to New York (JFK) due to thunderstorms. The flight itself took off 40 minutes late, and upon reaching JFK, we faced another hour’s delay in landing due to bad weather and low visibility. This delay became a cause for concern as we had a connecting flight to Doha in just 30 minutes,” Livemint quoted Ghosh as saying.

Despite their concerns, the family members managed to reach the gate on time, only to realize that they had not been properly checked in at Charlotte, and their seats had been assigned to other passengers.

“Frustrated, we were directed to American guest services, where we had to go back and forth between counters, eventually finding out that the next available flight to Doha was in two days, he added.

Ghosh then booked a hotel in New York and the family decided to explore the city during their unexpected stay. The family then departed on Sunday departed to Doha with further delays and challenges along the way.

Travel Woes Expected To Continue

Notably, over 24 million passengers are expected to fly from US airports during the holiday period, which started on June 29 and will end on July 5, according to Hopper.com, as cited by Bloomberg.

On Friday, approximately 3.7 million passengers are projected to fly for the second consecutive day. However, storm forecasts indicate that travel difficulties are expected to persist.

US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has already referred to the summer travel season as a “stress test” for airline operations.

“Nobody can control the weather, but it is important for airlines to create enough cushion in resilience in the system,” Buttigieg told CNN.

On the other hand, United CEO Scott Kirby has blamed the Federal Aviation claiming Administration that it has made the situation worse. In a staff memo, he said more than 150,000 United customers were affected in recent days because of FAA staffing issues and its impact on managing traffic.

Flights Faced Delays In Recent Days

Between June 24 and June 29, as many as 43,000 flights faced delays, and more than 7,700 flights got cancelled, FlightAware reported.

United Airlines Hit The Hardest

United Airlines experienced the greatest impact, with approximately 19 percent of its flights being canceled and around 47 percent experiencing delays. Although there was a slight improvement on Thursday compared to the previous days, United still had to cancel 18 percent of its flights.

Nevertheless, the airline has expressed confidence in its ability to restore operations in time for the holiday weekend, during which it anticipates accommodating 5 million passengers.

Bookings have witnessed a notable increase of approximately 12 percent compared to last year, and they are on the verge of reaching pre-pandemic levels.