Delta Air Lines cancelled 219 flights on Saturday after cutting 157 on Friday, and it had already lined up 68 more cancellations for Sunday as the carrier’s weekend disruption stretched into a third day. The airline also delayed more than 1,000 flights over the last two days, a run of delta cancellations that has stood out because weather was still fine and no major storm was tied to the trouble.
The scope is what makes the episode unusual. Delta said the cancellations touched 4% of its flights on Friday and 7% of its total flight volume on Saturday, while United Airlines, American Airlines and Southwest Airlines did not report similar cancellation setbacks. That left travelers and observers looking for another explanation, and the leading speculation pointed to system problems and staffing shortages, including new or inexperienced workers in key departments.
A small hail-storm on Monday may have helped set things off to a degree, according to JonNYC, but it does not account for the scale of the disruption now showing up across three days. The airline had recently cut in-flight service on hundreds of short flights, adding another layer of scrutiny as the weekend’s problems piled up.
Spirit Airlines has had the most cancellations worldwide since Friday, but for a different reason: it shut down after failing to reach a government bailout deal. Delta’s case is harder to explain, which is why the unanswered question is no longer whether the carrier is having a rough weekend. It is whether the airline is dealing with a deeper operational problem that weather was never going to fix.