Another day of flight cancellations in South Florida

Passengers trying to get to South Florida by air, or travel by air from the south of the peninsula to other places, will have another day of headaches ahead of them.

Friday dawned with 9 flights cancelled at Miami International Airport and 17 delayed. At Fort Lauderdale Airport, located in Broward County, there were 16 cancellations and at least 30 delays. And this is just the morning, it is expected that in the rest of the day there will be a ripple effect with more cancellations and delays, a fact that could be repeated throughout the weekend.

Yesterday was a day of chaos at airports in this region. Miami had more than 400 flight delays and 30 cancellations. Fort Lauderdale, had 361 delays and 65 cancellations. This is a nationwide problem that airlines are facing that combines poor weather conditions with lack of airline personnel.

Last weekend alone, airlines in the United States canceled more than 3,500 flights and had tens of thousands of flights delayed. Bad weather complicates air navigation, adding to that a change in the work schedules of pilots and flight attendants. If these teams go beyond the hours allowed to work by the unions, they must be removed, so that the plane does not take off. Usually, airlines had emergency work teams for cases of this type. But with the shortage of employees resulting from the pandemic in all industries, airlines often do not have plan B and after the delays they have to cancel flights directly. Which complicates the next day, because they have to relocate stranded passengers.

In particular, between yesterday and today in Florida, the problem has been the thunderstorms that hit the center of the peninsula and are beginning to move south, which suggests that the problem will not be solved in the coming days.

At the moment, Miami airport authorities are asking passengers to please check the status of their flight before approaching the terminal, and if there are any changes to contact the airline directly.

Most of the cancellations at US airports have been flights within the country and some to the Caribbean. Charter companies are also having problems. As there are fewer flights, having a cancellation on this type of airline makes rescheduling the flight more complicated.

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