Celebrate the Fourth in an airport! Americans stranded amid 16,000 flight delays and 1,500 cancellations

16,338 flights were delayed and more than 1,500 canceled as of Sunday morning in the peak of Fourth of July holiday weekend, illuminating recent air traffic problems spiking across the nation.

There were also 1,839 delays in and out of the United States, according to FlightAware.com, an airline tracking service.

Travel experts warned before the holiday weekend they were expecting at least 48 million people to drive and another 3.5 million who had flight plans despite airlines facing a shortage of pilots and flight attendants. 

More than 2.49 million people had already traveled through U.S. airports on Friday at the start of the July 4 travel weekend, which set a single-day record since the COVID-19 pandemic started, the Washington Post reported. 

“Today is one of the year’s busiest travel days,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg tweeted on Friday. “We’re watching closely to see how airlines are meeting their responsibilities to get passengers where they need to go this weekend, providing support for operations and here to help consumers who have issues.”

The TSA confirmed that flight traffic had returned to pre-pandemic levels, and reports indicate the delays and cancellations have been a steady problem since the holiday weekend started.

There were nearly 4,900 flight delays and nearly 500 cancellations Friday, according to the New York Times. 

“As of Saturday evening, there were 3,765 delays on US flights – including in and out of the country — and 612 cancellations...”  the New York Post reported Saturday evening. "That’s nearly triple the daily average of 210 scrapped flights.” 

Saturday night, 39 (11%) of the flights scheduled out of Queens based At LaGuardia Airport were canceled, and 64 (18%) were delayed, the NYC newspaper reported. New York City’s two other main airports, JFK International Airport and Newark Liberty International also had many delays and cancellations.

Major airline outfits blamed the delays and cancellations on different reasons.

“Delta teams continue to safely manage through the compounding factors of inclement weather and air traffic control delays, which impact available flight crew duty time,” a Delta Air Lines spokesman said in an email to the New York Times. “Canceling a flight is always our last resort, and we sincerely apologize to our customers for any disruption to their travel plans.”

The airline’s statement came as hundreds of its pilots picketed airports around the country on Friday, protesting adverse working conditions.

United Airlines blamed hot weather and air traffic controls while American Airlines, also facing a pilot shortage, blamed delays on a computer glitch in its pilot trip trading system.

The Federal Aviation Administration said the main reason for flight delays and cancellations was disruptive weather and increased travel demand. The agency said there were major thunderstorms across the country.

“The F.A.A. has acted on the issues raised by airlines, and is working with them to share information to keep aircraft moving safely when weather and other airspace events constrain capacity. The agency also has added alternate routes and placed more controllers in high demand areas, and increased data sharing,” the agency said in a statement.

Delays can be tracked on the agency’s flight delay map.