The recently released Air Travel Consumer Report (ATCR) reveals a consistently low cancellation rate below 2% for the first four months of 2023, reflecting significant improvement compared to previous years. However, severe weather during the July 4 holiday period caused an increase in delayed and canceled flights.
"Yesterday saw an all-time record number of US airline passengers," U.S Department of Transportation Sec. Pete Buttigieg wrote in a July 2 tweet. "At 2.7%, the overall cancellation rate was the lowest since the week began. Good progress here—FAA will continue to work with airlines to manage weather & reduce delays."
Buttigieg's tweet preceded the holiday period, during which there was an increase in both delayed and canceled flights. During a July 2 appearance on CBS's "Face the Nation," Buttigieg told Margaret Brennan that severe weather during the first days of the month "enormous pressure on the system."
"I think most passengers understand that no one can control the weather," Buttigieg said during the interview. "But anything that's under the control of the airlines and anything that we can do on the FAA side, we need to continue pushing to make sure that there's the smoothest possible experience for air passengers everywhere."
On July 4, more than 6,000 flights in the U.S. experienced delays or were cancelled, FlightAware.com reported, with 458 flights "within, into, or out of the United States" cancelled entirely.
For the first four months of 2023, the cancellation rate for flights was consistently below 2%, the DOT's Air Travel Consumer Report (ATCR) reported June 29, lower than the 2.7% cancellation rates of 2022 and pre-pandemic rates in 2019. ATCR's April data found 586,353 flights in April, 103.43% of reported flights in April 2022, a 3.4% increase year-over-year. Flights in March of this year were reported at 608,387, 3.62% more than in April.
"Remember, we have the most complex national airspace in the world Buttigieg said during the CBS interview. "But there are things we can do to manage it more efficiently."
He said the FFA is hiring 1,500 new air traffic controllers this year and another 1,800 traffic controllers next year; is using new technologies such as GPS to open more direct routes; and has established protocols with major airlines to safely and effectively reroute flights rather than delay or cancel them.
"So whether we're talking about day-to-day ops and tactics, or whether we're talking about the bigger picture of staffing air traffic control for the future, we're moving very aggressively on that," Buttigieg said, according to the transcript. "And now's the time for these conversations, because the FAA reauthorization bill, which will cover the next five years, is moving through the Senate as we speak."
