According to Airlines for America (A4A), over the two weeks leading up to Christmas and New Year’s Day, more than 39 million passengers—or 2.8 million people every day—will fly on American airlines. That represents a 16% rise over the previous year’s holiday season.
A4A projects that the main holiday spike will occur between December 20 and January 2
After a strong winter storm system initially interrupted flights, Southwest Airlines experienced an unprecedented collapse that resulted in the cancellation of 16,700 flights between December 21 and December 31, marring the previous holiday season.
Southwest claims that its investments in crew assignment and scheduling technologies, together with the enhanced de-icing capacity and human redundancy at critical airports that deal with snow and ice, have made it more resilient.
According to A4A, airlines have invested in technology, built industry staffing to the highest level in over 20 years, and adjusted timetables to prioritize operational excellence as a means of being ready for this year’s Christmas season.
According to FlightAware, US airlines have canceled 1.3% of scheduled flights so far this year, while 20.9% of planes have arrived at least fifteen minutes late.
In the same period last year, 2.2% of flights operated by US carriers were canceled, while 20% of planes arrived at least fifteen minutes late.
