Chaos cancellation for Delta during Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is one of the busiest travel times on US airline calendars. But Delta Air Lines has canceled hundreds of flights, upsetting the travel plans of thousands of passengers. It’s a blow to Delta Air Lines’ reputation and a blow to passengers on what is going to be the busiest weekend for airlines in a long time.

131 Delta flights canceled Friday

Gary Leif of View From The Wing has tightened the numbers and estimates that Delta Air Lines canceled around 420 flights over Thanksgiving weekend, including 254 flights on Thursday, November 26. According to FlightAware, Delta canceled 131 flights on Friday, November 27. On Saturday, November 28, 28 other flights will not take off. No data is yet available for Sunday, November 29.

In contrast, United Airlines canceled ten flights today (Friday), JetBlue canceled six flights, American Airlines canceled five flights and Allegiant Air canceled four flights.

Simple Flying’s Jay Singh told National Public Radio’s Mary Louise Kelly on Wednesday that the weekend was shaping up to be the busiest weekend for U.S. airlines since March. More than a million passengers passed through TSA checkpoints last Sunday. During the Thanksgiving holiday period, Jay Singh said daily passenger movements of 1.1 million to 1.2 million were likely.

And while those numbers are nowhere near what airlines might normally expect over Thanksgiving weekend, it’s a sign that the numbers are moving in the right direction for U.S. airlines.

What is happening at Delta Air Lines?

So what’s going on at Delta Air Lines? During this weekend, every weekend, why is Delta canceling so many flights when it is as usual with its competitors?

There is speculation that IR troubles are behind. Earlier this week, Delta Air Lines pilots voted in favor of pay cuts to avoid time off until 2022. About 1,700 Delta pilots were expected to get the ax by the end of November. This week’s deal avoided that. But Matthew Klint on Live & Let’s Fly thinks there may still be an under-the-radar IR campaign underway in Delta.

“With sheltered jobs, have the pilots just decided to make themselves sick? It seems counterintuitive given that the pilots overwhelmingly ratified the compromise, and no jobs will be lost, but it could be an expression of resentment at the pay cuts for all pilots.

A combination of factors?

Delta doesn’t say much about cancellations. In a statement seen by Simple Flying, a spokesperson for Delta said;

“Delta teams are working diligently to avoid flight cancellations this week. A number of factors weighed on our ability to staff several dozen scheduled flights in a timely manner on Wednesday. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause our customers. “

Various commentators believe that a few problems combine to wreak havoc with Delta’s schedules this Thanksgiving time. First, the airline had too few registered staff to depart, which gave them no padding when people called in sick. Second, if the IR theory is correct, many more employees called sick than Delta expected. Delta management and the pilots union spoke of this week’s deal to avoid time off in glowing terms. But there is apparently a lot of resentment among the ranks over the threat of reduced hours and pay cuts.

Meanwhile, Delta Air Lines says most of the affected passengers are transferred to other flights the same day.