Advertisement

businessAirlines

DFW and American Airlines are flooded with cancellations and delays after Sunday’s thunderstorms

Passengers are wondering why flights are continuing to be canceled even though the weather has improved.

Nearly 300 flights were canceled or delayed Monday at DFW International Airport after weather problems sidelined hundreds more flights Sunday. It was another problematic weekend for airlines as they attempt to get travel back to normal.

Sunday’s severe thunderstorms dropped more than two inches of rain near DFW International Airport, according to the National Weather Service, and resulted in nearly one-quarter of all flights being canceled at DFW Airport, per airline tracking website Flightaware.com.

Meanwhile, FAA-mandated ground stops and long lines of weary passengers persisted Monday even though weather conditions had greatly improved.

Advertisement
Aviation News

Stay prepared. Receive the latest airlines news, delivered straight to your inbox.

Or with:

“We experienced cancellations and delays yesterday and this morning due to weather at DFW, which resulted in ATC (air traffic control) impacts, two ramp closures yesterday and a current ground stop at DFW Airport,” American Airlines spokeswoman Gianna Urgo said in a statement.

The FAA said that American Airlines had requested holds on some of the company’s incoming flights at DFW.

Advertisement

At the request of American Airlines, the FAA is temporarily holding some of the airlines’ flights bound for Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport at their departure airports.

Dallas Love Field, which is the home of Southwest Airlines, had far fewer problems Sunday with 6% of flights canceled, although it had 96 delays, more than a quarter of all flights. Love Field had 14 cancellations and 42 delays Monday, according to Flightaware.com.

It was another rough couple of days for air travelers during a summer that has often tested the patience of passengers hoping to get back to flying after the long pandemic-induced isolation.

Advertisement

In May, it took American Airlines more than a week to recover from a bad weather weekend. The airline said that these kinds of extreme weather events with heavy thunderstorms can cause pilots and flight attendants to hit FAA limits for hours worked and subsequently harm schedules in upcoming days. It’s particularly bad when it happens somewhere like DFW, American’s biggest hub.

Delta and Southwest have also had their share of operational challenges with delays and cancellations, and executives at the two companies have acknowledged the troubles and promised to do better.

Spirit Airlines was also hit with a rash of flight delays and cancellations Sunday and Monday, affecting about half of all its flights each day.

California travel photographer Aria Smith was one of the thousands of American Airlines passengers who felt the pain of the flight operations problems. She was only meant to stop at DFW for a 45-minute layover on her way to Puerto Vallarta but spent five hours sitting on the taxiway after the weather problems. Frustrated passengers watched other planes land and sat through several announcements from pilots that the plane would soon take off.

After finally being taken back to a gate to unload, there was a line of 500 to 600 people waiting in line to get rebooked.

“I travel a lot and I’ve never seen anything like it,” Smith said. “And you had no other way to rebook your flight because the app was crashing and the call-in number had a seven-hour wait.”

She left the airport late Sunday night with no flight but had to pay $150 for an Uber ride to downtown Dallas because so many people were requesting ride-share services, she said. After another $200 for a hotel and travel back to the airport the next morning, she said she’s out nearly $400, not including her lost day of vacation in Mexico.

Advertisement