DFW and American Airlines are flooded with cancellations and delays after Sunday’s thunderstorms
Nearly 300 flights were canceled or delayed at DFW International Airport on Monday after hundreds more flights were sidelined on Sunday due to weather issues, another troubled weekend for airlines trying to get travel back to normal.
Sunday’s severe thunderstorms dropped more than two inches of rain near DFW International Airport, according to the National Weather Service, and resulted in nearly a quarter of all flights at DFW Airport being canceled, according to the airline’s Flightaware tracking website .com.
Meanwhile, the FAA ordered ground stops and long lines of tired passengers halted on Monday, even though weather conditions had greatly improved.
“Just go to the transfer line,” they said. The rebooking line for American Airlines at DFW. The shortage of pilots / crews is real. Flights are canceled on the left and right. Delays everywhere. A line of planes just sitting on the tarmac. @AmericanAir @DFWAAirport pic.twitter.com/8EedLy4FYq
– Political Masquerader (@politicalmask) August 2, 2021
“We saw weather-related cancellations and delays at DFW yesterday and this morning, which led to ATC (Air Traffic Control) influences, yesterday to two ramp closures and a current ground stop at DFW airport,” said American Airlines spokeswoman Gianna Urgo, in a statement.
The FAA did not respond to requests for comment on ground stop commands.
Dallas Love Field, home of Southwest Airlines, had far fewer problems with 6% of its canceled flights, despite having 96 delays, more than a quarter of all flights. Love Field had 14 cancellations and 42 delays on Monday, according to Flightaware.com.
It was another tough day for air travelers in a summer that often tested the patience of passengers hoping to fly again after the long isolation caused by the pandemic.
In May it took American Airlines more than a week to recover from a bad weather weekend. The airline said these types of extreme weather events, with severe thunderstorms, could cause pilots and flight attendants to exceed FAA hourly work limits and, as a result, affect flight schedules for the coming days. It’s especially bad when it happens somewhere like DFW, the largest hub in the United States.
Delta and Southwest also had their share of operational challenges with delays and cancellations, and executives at both companies recognized the issues and promised to do better.
Spirit Airlines was also affected by a series of flight delays and cancellations on Sunday and Monday, affecting around half of all flights every day.
California travel photographer Aria Smith was one of thousands of American Airlines passengers who felt the pain of operating problems. She was only supposed to stop for a 45-minute layover at DFW on the way to Puerto Vallarta, but sat on the taxiway for five hours after the weather problems. Frustrated passengers watched other planes land and held off with several announcements from pilots that the plane was about to take off.
After they were finally brought back to a gate for unloading, 500 to 600 people queued to be rebooked.
“I travel a lot and have never seen anything like it,” said Smith. “And you had no other option to rebook your flight because the app crashed and the dial-in number waited seven hours.”
She left the airport late Sunday night without a flight but had to pay $ 150 for an Uber ride to downtown Dallas because so many people were asking for ridesharing, she said. After spending another $ 200 on a hotel and driving back to the airport the next morning, she said she had nearly $ 400 left, not counting her lost vacation day in Mexico.
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