Hurricane Idalia is sending massive storm surges cascading into parts of Florida, and also wreaking havoc for travellers and airlines. Reuters reports that airlines in the United States canceled more than 850 flights today (Aug. 30) as the storm landfall in Florida’s Big Bend region as an “extremely dangerous” Category 3 storm. Southwest Airlines had canceled 222 flights as of noon Eastern Time, while Delta Air Lines and American Airlines canceled 158 and 132 flights, respectively, as of 8:17 a.m. ET, according to flight-tracking website Flightaware.com. The website reported 65% of incoming flights to Tampa International Airport had been cancelled, Read more
American Airlines
As Rosanne Roseannadanna liked to say on the old Saturday Night Live skits, “If it’s not one thing, it’s another.” The airline industry in the past six months has battled freak snowstorms. They’ve had mysterious computer issues. I seem to recall a plague of locusts in Nebraska, but I could be wrong. Anyway, now comes something else: wildfire smoke. Cancellations didn’t seem too bad, but major airports in eastern Canada and the northeastern United States suffered thousands of delays on Wednesday as smoke from Canadian wildfires drifted south. At one point, the Federal Aviation Administration in the U.S. called a Read more
A new airline satisfaction poll puts Southwest, JetBlue and Delta at the top of the charts. But Canadian airlines came away with below average scores. The annual J.D. Power North American Airline Satisfaction Study 2023 finds Southwest on top among Economy/Basic Economy airlines with a score of 827. Delta was number one for Premium Economy, totaling 848 points. For First Class/Business Class, JetBlue scored the best mark with 893 points. Air Canada was fifth out of six airlines in First/Business, with a mark of 830. That’s below the average score of 846 in the category. For Premium Economy, Air Canada Read more
U.S. airlines expect strong travel demand that drove record fourth-quarter revenues to continue into 2023, but economic uncertainty and burgeoning labor and operations costs could cloud their rosy outlooks, Reuters reports. JetBlue Airways, American Airlines and Alaska Airlines last week all forecasted full-year earnings that were better than expected, the agency said, adding that “airlines are cashing in as consumers snap up tickets following a pandemic-induced slump.” HOLLAND AMERICA SETS WAVE SEASON RECORD In an early sign of a successful Wave season, Holland America Line bookings in the third week of January were the highest on record for any January Read more
An historic “weather bomb” is making a mockery of airline schedules and ruining holiday plans for travelers across North America. With snow starting to build in some cities and fierce winds bringing record-low temperatures to many parts of the U.S., FlightAware reports 4,700 U.S. flight cancellations as of 1 p.m. Eastern Time. The website showed 35% of all outbound flights have been cancelled at New York’s LaGuardia Airport, while Detroit had a 43% cancellation rate and Seattle 46%. Chicago O’Hare was showing 23% of flights cancelled. Cleveland and Buffalo were much worse. Cleveland was showing a 70% cancellation rate, while Read more
