00:00 Well, this week's variety of extreme weather continues to impact air travel to no surprise
00:04 over much of the country.
00:05 And Kathleen Bangs is spokesperson for FlightAware.
00:08 Kathleen, thanks so much for joining us once again.
00:11 Great to be here.
00:12 Well, it's good to speak with you, Kathleen.
00:14 And how is the most recent storm system impacting flights?
00:19 We had all the rain, the wind, the snow.
00:21 Things are improving today, but how do we stand this week?
00:24 Well, we've cut into our beautiful record from over the holidays, and actually almost
00:30 half of all flights were delayed yesterday, and we saw over 7% canceled.
00:35 So that's significant.
00:37 Anytime we get over 1% of flights canceled, the system notices it.
00:42 And we had almost 1,500 canceled flights yesterday across the U.S., 9,000 delays.
00:49 And looking at more this weekend, unfortunately.
00:52 If we kind of zoom out and look at the most recent big picture perspective, flight cancellations
00:57 in 2023 were down to just 1.2%, according to the Department of Transportation.
01:03 So we've been told that's the lowest in a decade.
01:05 So what's behind some of those improved numbers, and could that potentially continue once we
01:09 get over these short-term weather humps this year?
01:12 Yes.
01:13 You know, when you take weather out, which over Thanksgiving we had such great weather
01:17 and fairly good weather over the Christmas season, although not quite as good as Thanksgiving.
01:22 So the airlines were prepared.
01:24 They actually had larger aircraft on a lot of routes.
01:27 They paired back schedules all through the last year.
01:30 They ramped up employee hiring and training.
01:33 So for this winter season, they went out and got more de-icing equipment, for example,
01:38 in the case of Southwest Airlines, got more crews trained.
01:41 So they were definitely prepared.
01:42 And yeah, it's really surprising.
01:44 We are back to pre-pandemic 2019 passenger levels.
01:48 We're actually at record passenger levels, but we've cut in half the number of cancellations
01:54 in 2023 with previous years.
01:57 So the airlines' performance this year was really sterling, really A-plus in terms of
02:01 delays and cancellations overall.
02:04 Delays still high, a little bit higher than last year, and a couple extra minutes in that
02:09 average length of delays.
02:11 But the most important thing, cancellations are significantly down until yesterday.
02:16 OK, well, that's good information.
02:19 And I know that we need to keep a close eye on the increase in delays and cancellations
02:23 likely for Friday.
02:25 And any early projections for Friday to Saturday?
02:29 Well, unfortunately, what we're looking at is some major airports like Chicago, O'Hare,
02:35 unfortunately, being impacted.
02:36 And what we're looking at is those areas that don't just have rain or that don't just have
02:40 snow but that have high winds, because those high winds, as you know, kick up that snow
02:45 into blizzard conditions.
02:47 That visibility comes way down, makes it more difficult for flights to get in.
02:51 They have to do instrument approaches then as opposed to visual approaches.
02:55 That slows down the airspace.
02:57 Next big thing is that wind, of course, then that limits what runways you can use.
03:02 Zero wind, you can use all your runways.
03:04 Twenty, thirty knots, gusting to forty, that limits your runways.
03:08 And of course, de-icing.
03:09 When we see areas like Chicago, O'Hare getting possible slush and freezing rain this weekend,
03:14 that means airplanes not only have to de-ice before they take off, sometimes if they're
03:18 waiting in line, they have to return and de-ice and anti-ice.
03:23 So they have to do more de-icing steps.
03:25 That slows everything down.
03:26 So any place that you're going to see especially frozen precipitation this weekend, thunderstorm
03:31 activity or strong winds, and that means a lot of areas, you're going to see delays and
03:36 unfortunately more cancellations.
03:38 All right.
03:39 A fascinating insider's perspective.
03:41 We learn more things whenever we talk to you, Kathleen, from FlightAware.
03:44 Thanks again, Kathleen Banks.
03:46 Good to see you.
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