Summer air travel issues likely to continue, experts warn

Summer travel woes likely aren’t going away any time soon. 

Industry experts say the rest of the season will be rough for travelers in part because of air traffic controller staffing issues, which they say can’t be solved overnight, as well as over-scheduling by airlines.

The Federal Aviation Administration said it has been working to fix staffing issues in New York City and other parts of the country, and even asked carriers to cut down on their summer schedules earlier this year to add more slack into the system.

“Things are just going to be crazy,” travel expert Lee Abbamonte, who says he has been to every country in the world, told FOX Business.

Abbamonte projected that delays and cancellations will continue throughout the summer travel season. He also cautioned that problems could persist even beyond the summer.

Abbamonte said one reason is that “it has taken them [the FAA] forever to fill the void on air traffic controllers.”

Clint Henderson, managing editor of travel website The Points Guy, also believes the air traffic controller shortage is a “huge issue” that won’t be solved this year.

“As far as the actual travel trouble that we’re seeing… that is going to be an ongoing trend,” Henderson told FOX Business. 

Henderson said there are still not enough air traffic controllers, noting shortages specifically at major hubs in the Northeast – like Newark, LaGuardia and John F. Kennedy airports – and even into Canada. 

“When things start to go wrong, there’s not enough staff to help the airlines sort it out,” he added. 

Henderson, however, gave the FAA credit, saying it is working to hire and train more air traffic controllers.

The issue, he said, is that it is a slow process “that’s not going to be solved overnight.”

On top of that, the FAA lost a lot of experienced workers over the course of the pandemic, he added. 

“Especially as things start to go wrong, and the system failure starts to cascade… when you don’t have a lot of experience handling situations like that, you can quickly get overwhelmed,” Henderson added. 

During an interview with CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg pushed back on airline executives placing the blame on the FAA, saying that “less than 10% of the delay minutes in the system” are caused by air traffic control shortages.

He also noted that severe weather was the key cause of recurring clusters of flight problems.

Henderson also agreed it’s not just FAA staffing issues.

Airlines also share a lot of the responsibility because they are over-scheduled, he said. 

“They’re scheduled as if there’s no such thing as an afternoon thunderstorm… there’s not a lot of slack in the system,” Henderson said. 

Earlier this year, airlines responded to calls from the FAA to reduce their schedules in the Northeast by 10%. However, Henderson argued that airlines didn’t reduce them enough.

He hopes that after the debacle last week – when thousands of flights were thrown off track after thunderstorms rolled in across the East Coast and Midwest – that will change. 

“There’s no wiggle room. There’s no room for error right now,” Henderson said. “You really need that give in the system in order to help when things start to go sideways.” 

United CEO Scott Kirby warned in a recent note to staff that it will “have to further change/reduce our schedule to give ourselves even more spare gates and buffer – especially during thunderstorm season.”

The FAA told FOX Business that it is “still catching up on controller training in NYC and elsewhere.”

However, “in terms of being able to work the traffic that is scheduled, we have not had any issues in the NYC area for the past week.”

Still, Henderson projects the issues to persist “maybe even into 2024.” 

What should travelers do in the meantime?

For now, Abbamonte said travelers need to be prepared.

To reduce the risk of facing a delay or cancellation, he suggested taking the earliest flight possible.

If a flight is delayed or canceled, passengers have the best chance of still getting out that day, he said. 

It’s also a good idea to have travel insurance, according to Abbamonte.

Additionally, it’s better to book with the airline directly, either online or through its app, rather than through a third party like Expedia.

If an issue occurs, the airline will direct you to the third party you used, he said.