If you thought air travel was stressful prior to the pandemic, brace yourself.
Travelers are flocking to the airports this summer, and security checkpoints are struggling to keep up. According to the administration, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) checked 1,858,328 travelers at checkpoints on Tuesday alone. While that is significantly less than the number of travelers in the same period in 2019, it is more than three times what TSA saw around this time last year, and staff shortages have led to particularly long waiting times at airports.
“It is certainly the peak summer season,” said Robert Mann, an aviation analyst in Port Washington, New York. “But this summer is different because of the pent-up vacation and the demand to visit friends and relatives.”
Between canceled flights, long waits, surprisingly high air fares, the increasing spread of the Delta variant of COVID-19 and tensions over mask requirements and compliance, flying this summer may be a lot more hectic and uncomfortable than you have been before got used to.
This is what awaits you when you fly this summer.
Cancellations, flight delays and unruly passengers
On Tuesday, there were 5,202 delays in, to or from the United States and 186 cancellations, according to FlightAware.
Why so many Well, you can’t fly a plane without kerosene – and a shortage of that fuel at some U.S. airports can result in flights being canceled or additional stopovers, CNN reported. The cause of the shortage appears to be that too few truck drivers were able to deliver the fuel and because the pipelines swung away from carrying kerosene when the pandemic halted air traffic. The shortage was mainly seen in western travel destinations such as Montana, Nevada, and Wyoming.
Storms and a lack of staff also led to cancellations and delays, reported Slate. Last month, 9,399 flights were canceled worldwide, according to FlightAware.
There have also been cases where passengers did not follow airlines’ COVID-19 guidelines, resulting in flight crews delaying flights while the situation is resolved. An American Airlines flight from North Carolina to the Bahamas was delayed earlier this month, in part because teenage passengers refused to wear their masks.
Tensions over the mask mandate are high. About 75% of the reports of recalcitrant passengers by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in 2021 came from confrontations with travelers who refused to comply with mask requirements, CNBC recently reported.
Overcrowded airports and long waiting times
You are unlikely to go through security this summer.
At the beginning of the summer, the TSA warned that there could be long queues at the airport as the administration suffers from a lack of staff. (TSA even started giving out $ 1,000 sign-up bonuses in their scramble to attract employees, CNBC reported.) Passengers at Pensacola International Airport in Florida reported missing their flights as the lines meandered through the terminal, according to WEAR-TV .
It’s not just about safety – there are also long lines for passengers once they have gone through TSA controls. Starbucks employees at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport told the Wall Street Journal that staffing levels are lagging far behind customer demand, resulting in long lines. According to CNBC, an executive at Dallas / Fort Worth International Airport sent a message to the airport concessionaires asking them not to “steal” employees from one another. (Travelers also spend hours on hold calling airlines.)
And while passengers enjoyed extra space on many flights last summer as airlines kept medium seats free for long-distance travelers, that policy ended when Delta stopped blocking medium seats in May. Due to the high demand during the summer travel season, the flights are often full.
“Everyone will share an armrest,” says Mann.
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Potentially high prices – and how you can save on flights
Sky-high demand can also lead to higher airfares. In mid-May, the flight booking app Hopper reported that the domestic flight price had risen by 12% since April.
Domestic flight prices are now comparable to summer 2019, Hopper economist Adit Damodaran told Money. (International travel prices are still 15 to 20% lower than in summer 2019.)
But you don’t have to empty your pockets when you shop smart. Here are a few tips on how to save on airfare this summer:
- Book early. Book your flight no later than three weeks before your departure date, as according to Hopper, prices will increase by 25% in two weeks and by a further 30% in the last week. “That’s the greatest thing you can do, regardless of your route, regardless of the airline,” says Damodaran.
- Be flexible. If you can avoid flying when everyone else is, then this is what you should do. It’s almost always cheaper to fly in the middle of the week, so try to leave and return on Tuesday or Wednesday – and if you can’t do it on both legs, at least try these days, Damodaran says. (If you’re concerned about having to cancel, consider getting travel insurance so you don’t lose all of your money.)
- Find out where low cost airlines fly. Low-cost airlines like Spirit and Frontier added tons of routes to destinations like Florida when business travel fell by the wayside. When traveling to vacation destinations, check out the routes that low-cost airlines fly as other airlines have had to lower their prices for those destinations too, says Damodaran.
- Compare flight prices. Don’t jump on the first flight you see, instead use websites like Google Flights and Skyscanner to see which flights are cheaper (especially if your itinerary is flexible). You can also set up notifications for cheap flights on sites like Kayak.
- Use a travel rewards card. Before booking, check that your credit card gives you flight awards that you can use on your flight. (Money has a list of the best travel rewards cards.)
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