Passengers via Maine’s airports fared comparatively nicely over a four-day July 4 vacation weekend that noticed hundreds of flights canceled at airports nationwide.
Greater than 2 million passengers handed via U.S. airport checkpoints every day over the July 4 weekend, approaching pre-pandemic ranges, Transportation Safety Administration information confirmed. Pissed off passengers skilled greater than 2,200 flight cancellations and 25,000 delays, in response to FlightAware, as airways struggled with workers shortages and route scheduling.
The Portland Worldwide Jetport had 13 cancellations out of the 412 flights scheduled over the four-day weekend, in response to airport information. That 3.2 % cancellation charge is near its common cancellation charge between 2.5 % and three % at different occasions. It didn’t have flight delay info.
“We at all times advocate checking flight standing together with your airline earlier than departing for the airport,” Zachary Sundquist, assistant airport director on the Jetport, stated.
At Bangor Worldwide Airport, there have been some delays and cancellations in current weeks associated to dangerous climate, scheduling points and staffing shortages, however spokesperson Aimee Thibodeau didn’t present numbers. She really helpful that passengers obtain their airline’s app to trace their flight standing.
“And be sure to have a Plan B,” she stated.
Passengers encountering delays ought to coordinate with their airline, as a result of most will routinely put you on the following out there flight with seats out there, Sundquist stated. Some could not cost charges to alter flights. Delta Airways, which flies to and from the airports in Bangor and Portland, allowed free flight modifications from July 1-4.
“The ultimate reminder can be to pack your persistence,” Sundquist stated. “Anticipate {that a} flight disruption could happen.”
Disruptions are taking place so often everywhere in the world {that a} new evaluation of Google Developments information by TradingPedia discovered a 100% improve in searches associated to “flight canceled” in June 2022 in contrast with the earlier month, a surge not seen since 2020, when the pandemic brought on huge flight cancellations.
Crystal Riggs Thayer, a Kentucky center college instructor who visited Maine in June, is aware of all too nicely that disruptions can nonetheless occur.
She and her companion arrived on the Portland airport to go residence to Kentucky at 4:15 a.m. Their flight was delayed twice, with the rescheduled flight leaving them solely quarter-hour to make a connection at New York’s LaGuardia Airport. That flight was then canceled due to dangerous climate in New York.
Delta routinely assigned the 2 of them new flights however not on the identical airplane. The airline switched their flight so that they could possibly be collectively for a day flight to New York with a night connection to Kentucky. That was canceled as nicely, they usually had been rerouted from Portland to Detroit to Kentucky the following day. That flight was additionally canceled.
They determined to take the bus from Portland to Boston, the place they had been capable of get on a standby record for a direct flight to Kentucky. After different delays, together with a pc glitch that will not enable them to board, the pilot got here off the airplane to inform the gate attendant there have been empty seats on the airplane. However floor workers wouldn’t approve letting them onto the airplane.
They boarded a later flight and arrived in Kentucky at 11 p.m., some 43 hours after they first headed to the airport in Portland.
“Maine was stunning…I’d like to go to once more sometime, however I gained’t be flying there, I’ll drive up.” Thayer wrote in a Fb submit.
