Global Courant
United Airlines plans to make changes to flight operations to avoid weather-related disruptions ahead of holiday travel on July 4, Chief Executive Officer Scott Kirby said Saturday.
Recent flight disruptions have raised new concerns about whether airlines are ready to deal with the summer travel boom during the July 4 holiday, during which US air traffic is likely to exceed pre-Covid levels.
“As we work to manage the things that are within our control, we also need to plan better against the things that are beyond our control so that we are able to recover faster,” Kirby said in a note. .
Last month, United canceled about 19% of its scheduled flights as thunderstorms and equipment failures at a US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) facility in Washington caused significant delays for air travelers on the US East Coast.
About 26,000 flights were delayed by all airlines over a weekend in June after thunderstorms swept through parts of the US, according to data from flight monitoring service FlightAware. Kirby last week blamed the FAA for recent flight cancellations.
United Airlines is also working with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to get more gates, Kirby said, adding that the company would need to further modify or shorten its schedule to give itself more reserve gates and buffer, especially during storm season .
“Airlines can plan for things like hurricanes, freezing temperatures and blizzards, but United has never seen such an extensive restricted work environment as we saw in Newark this past week,” Kirby said in a note to staff.
