Leading members of his own party are criticizing Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg for failing to stop “airmageddon” flight horror as travel nightmare persisted through the Fourth of July weekend.
During the busiest holiday weekend since the pandemic started, 4,378 flights had been delayed and more than 312 had been canceled by Sunday night.
Once of yet, 88 more flights have been postponed for Monday; however, as July 4 travel begins, the number will probably increase dramatically, hurting thousands of Americans returning from a long weekend away.
According to letters they sent out last week, Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Ro Khanna of California also urged Buttigieg to act well before the holiday weekend.
Sanders encouraged Buttigieg to impose fines of $55,000 per passenger for flights delayed for longer than two hours, require airlines to reimburse passengers for delays of more than an hour, and penalize airlines that are unable to “fully staff” scheduled flights.
As expected, the weekend’s travel havoc worsened, prompting Sanders to use Twitter to once more challenge Buttigieg to come up with a solution.
“The taxpayers paid $54 billion to the airlines. They expressed their gratitude by raising ticket costs by 45 percent and leaving travellers stranded in congested airports. Sanders wrote, “Enough.
“It’s time for the Transportation Department to penalize underperforming airlines severely and issue full reimbursements for protracted delays.
According to FlightAware, by 11 p.m. Sunday night, at least 312 flights had been canceled and a startling 4,378 had been delayed.
On Saturday at the end of the day, 654 US flights had been cancelled and 5,860 had been delayed.
By Sunday night, 314 flights had been delayed and 55 cancelled by United Airlines. American Airlines has canceled 29 flights and delayed 533, Delta has canceled 53 flights and delayed 433, and JetBlue has just canceled six flights and delayed 270.
Prior to the long weekend, Sanders urged Buttigieg to take action, directing his supporters to send an email to the Biden administration pleading with them to “take action to prevent flight cancellations and delays.”
He claimed that the Department’s incremental approach had lacked the bravery, vision, and urgency necessary to address the situation and the demands of the American people.
According to Khanna, Buttigieg must make it clear that he has the power to hold airlines accountable for unfair and deceptive acts.
He must set down guidelines for what will happen if flights are canceled, there is insufficient staff, or passengers are misled.
Buttigieg appeared to give up on getting things under control yesterday when he advised Americans to follow his lead and seek compensation for the canceled flights.
Previously, he had urged airlines to get in shape before the weekend.
‘Airlines offer miles as compensation for some travel troubles, and you can often haggle on this,’ tweeted Buttigieg, who claimed he was first offered approximately $30 back for his missed flight on Friday but ended up receiving $112.07 instead.
When a flight is canceled, you are entitled to a cash return, even if an airline may occasionally pay you points or miles as compensation.
With eight passengers paid $10,000 each to give up their seats last week, according to passengers on one overbooked Delta flight, the airline has taken extraordinary measures to appease disgruntled customers.
This weekend, 48 million people are anticipated to travel, with 3.5 million taking to the skies, according to AAA.
However, considering that the Transportation Security Administration inspected more than 2.1 million passengers at airports on Saturday alone, the actual number of passengers flying could be significantly higher.
American Airlines was the top U.S. airline with the most cancellations Wednesday, with 102 cancellations and 889 delays.
Delta followed suit by postponing 535 flights and canceled 82.
Southwest has postponed 25 flights and delayed 1,048 others, while United Airlines has canceled 43 flights and delayed 492 others.
According to FlightAware, the United States has experienced the cancellation of more than 12,000 flights since the busy Juneteenth travel weekend.
Holiday tourists will have to deal with more expensive travel as well as airport congestion and excessive traffic.
Average hotel rates have climbed by 23% over the past year, while lowest airfares have increased by 14%.
Average petrol prices have increased by 56%.
A total of 47.9 million Americans are expected to travel for the Fourth of July this year, up 3.7 percent from last year and nearly at the historic high achieved in 2019, before to the pandemic, according to AAA.
The Biden administration is also criticizing the airlines, claiming that they should adhere to the schedules they post after receiving billions in stimulus money to survive the pandemic.
Buttigieg stated earlier this month that airlines had until July 4 to resolve any problems and iron out any wrinkles so that passengers could enjoy a trouble-free summer vacation.
Earlier this week, Buttigieg retaliated after Airlines for America’s CEO accused the FAA of causing delays.
Buttigieg stated to NBC Nightly News that “the majority of cancellations and the majority of delays have nothing to do with air traffic control manpower.”
Many are urging Buttigieg to take action in the midst of the Fourth of July travel disaster rather than offering suggestions on how to obtain reimbursement like he did.
Hey Pete, one Twitter user with the handle The Dude wrote. Perhaps, in your capacity as Secretary of Transportation, you should be meeting with the FAA, significant airlines, and other key players, banging your fist the the table, and demanding they resolve these issues and come up with a solution. not provide us a frequent flyer mileage update.
How about folks merely want to go somewhere when they actually paid to go? commented another Limstone Caulk on Twitter.
Another Twitter user, Brian Jackson, expressed his desire for Buttigieg to take initiative in the matter.
You know [as] the Secretary of Transportation you could possibly, I dunno, correct the reason of the delays so nobody would need a refund and would actually arrive at their destination?
‘How about you actually check out the reasons the airlines are experiencing troubles and see if there is a way to help, I mean, if you’re not busy, given you are Transportation Secretary,’ a another Twitter user with the handle Pantazopopulos commented.
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