Buttigieg warns of even more ‘severe weather’ delays to come over July 4 holiday

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg seems unconcerned about how United Airlines plans to improve after a huge string of delays leading up to Independence Day.

Rather, Buttigieg says he is “focused” on making sure U.S. airlines stay on schedule over the holidays, as he warned of “bad weather” causing even more delays and cancellations.

The embattled United Airlines is offering irate passengers 30,000 air miles to try and convince them to stay loyal to the company after a week of cancellation chaos – forcing many to spend nights in airports and many never landing at their final destination.

“We had two rough days of severe weather at the beginning of the week and that put a huge strain on the system,” he told CBS Face the Nation host Margaret Brennan when asked why air travel in the US is the last time is ‘so chaotic’.

‘[Cancellations] really skyrocketed at the start of the week, largely due to severe weather conditions hitting some of our major hubs,” the transportation secretary explained. “I think most passengers understand that no one can control the weather. But everything under the control of the airlines – and everything we can do on the FAA’s side – we must continue to push to make sure it’s the smoothest experience for airline passengers everywhere.”

In a separate interview with CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday morning, Buttigieg also said he’s not too concerned about fixing some of the underlying airline issues, but wants to ensure a smooth holiday weekend with a huge increase in the number of airlines. number of trips and flights. the disturbances associated with it.

“I’m less focused on how the CEO of United Airlines moves and more focused on how millions of passengers get to move,” Buttigieg told CNN when asked if anything needs to change at United Airlines after a slew of canceled and delayed flights .

“Things seem to be back to normal for the system soon and United seem to have recovered as well,” he assured. “Now we’re looking more serious — potential for severe weather. That’s what caused all this trouble about a week ago.”

Buttigieg said air traffic in the US has “come a long way” since last year, when there were “unacceptable levels of cancellations and delays” even on blue sky days.

On top of hundreds of cancellations and delays last week, United is still struggling to save face after it emerged that the airline’s CEO, Scott Kirby, flew privately from New York to Denver while paying customers slept at the airports.

“Getting a private jet was the wrong decision because it was insensitive to our customers waiting to go home,” Kirby said in a statement from the airline.

Passengers were unimpressed, with one tweeting a screenshot of his $10 million salary — significantly more than Delta or American Airlines CEOs.

In a letter to those hardest hit by this week’s chaos, Chief Customer Officer Linda Jojo said, “I know this week has been tough. Really bad weather, air traffic control issues and some of our own operational challenges led to a rough experience for you and many of our customers.

“Providing these miles is the right thing to do. After all, you put your trust in us and expect more,” added Jojo.

United has not said how many people will receive the miles.

On Saturday, Kirby said the airline plans to make changes to flight operations to avoid weather-related disruptions ahead of July 4 holiday travel.

“As we work to control the things that are within our control, we also need to plan better against the things that are beyond our control so that we can recover faster,” he said.

United Airlines is also working with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to get more gates, Kirby said, adding that the company would need to further modify or shorten its schedule to give itself more reserve gates and buffer, especially during storm season .

“Airlines can plan for things like hurricanes, sub-zero temperatures and snow storms, but United has never seen an extensive restricted work environment like we saw in Newark this past week,” Kirby said in a note to staff.

Earlier this week, Kirby engaged in a war of words with the Secretary of Transportation, Pete Buttigieg, over the chaos.

Kirby said in a memo to staff that the FAA had “abandoned” the airline over the weekend due to a lack of adequate personnel at its air traffic control centers.

But Buttigieg hit back in an interview with CNN, saying the airline has “some internal issues that they need to fix.”

“I want to be very clear: Air traffic control problems are not the main cause of cancellations and delays,” he said Thursday.

They’re not even number two. All data, including the industry’s own data, are very clear on that.’

Buttigieg pointed out United over the delays, saying other airlines handled the situation better than they did.

“With the exception of United, airlines have recovered to a more typical cancellation/delay rate as of this morning following the severe weather earlier this week,” Buttigieg tweeted.

United Airlines has also been criticized by passengers stranded at airports across the country as this week’s “flight mare” skipped Friday — ahead of the July 4 holiday weekend.

As of Friday, more than 4,000 US flights were delayed and nearly 400 cancelled.

It came during a hectic week for travelers across the country, with nearly 7,000 flights canceled since Monday.

In addition, there were 35,000 delays this week as airports struggled to manage travelers.

TSA advised Americans to “pack some patience” as they try to get to their vacation destinations.

“As we approach the July 4 holiday travel period, we expect record travel volumes, TSA is staffed and ready to address the increased volumes with technologies and resources for improved security effectiveness, efficiency and passenger experience at security checkpoints,” TSA Administrator David Pekoske said Thursday.

“I encourage travelers to pack a bag that starts empty to make sure you don’t have any prohibited items, arrive early, have your ID ready, and pack some patience.”