The frenetic rush to airports and highways in the United States begins at the beginning of the end-of-year holidays, but everything could develop relatively calmly if the weather permits.
Trips are spread out over several days, from Christmas Eve to after New Year’s Eve, so traffic probably won’t reach Thanksgiving peaks. Hence the optimism of federal authorities and airlines.
But the debacle at Southwest Airlines a year ago should serve as a warning against overconfidence. This week, the Department of Transportation announced a settlement under which Southwest will pay $140 million for that disaster that stranded more than 2 million travelers.
This year, airlines have canceled 1.2% of flights in the United States, compared to 2.1% in the same period last year. Cancellations were well under 1% over Thanksgiving, according to FlightAware.
“I don’t want to bring bad luck, but so far 2023 has seen the lowest cancellation rate in the last five years,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said Tuesday. However, he noted, the winter weather “will certainly bring difficulties in the coming weeks.”
Last year saw a wave of canceled flights as the rapid post-pandemic rebound in travel caught airlines short-staffed. Since then, U.S. airlines have hired thousands of pilots, flight attendants and other workers, and the cancellation rate has fallen.
After cancellations and other disruptions last year, travel in Europe has normalized this year, with more travelers expected between Christmas and New Year’s, said Mike Arnot, a spokesman for Cirium, an aviation analytics company. All in all, around 3% of flights within Europe have been canceled in December so far and almost 30% have suffered delays, according to Cirium.
According to Cirium’s projection, the number of seats on flights within Europe will increase 10% between December 22 and January 2, compared to the same period last year.
Strong winds and heavy rain from Storm Pia are expected to cause disruption in the Netherlands and the UK on Thursday. Amsterdam Schiphol Airport warned that a “significant number of flights will be delayed or canceled on Thursday.” On Wednesday night, around a third of Schiphol arrivals and departures were delayed, according to FlightAware. Cancellations affected 1% of departures and 2% of arrivals.
Pía caused train suspensions in Scotland on Thursday and delays were expected in the rest of the United Kingdom, but so far the storm did not cause disruption to aviation.
Globally, air travel has not yet fully recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic. It is estimated that 8.6 billion travelers will pass through the world’s airports in 2023, according to the airport chamber Airports Council International, based in Montreal. That is equivalent to 94% of the passenger volume in 2019, before the pandemic.
Source: With information from AP
