Millions of Americans returning home from the Memorial Day holiday faced thousands of flight delays and cancellations due to storms across the U.S., driving air travel to new records. File photo by Eric S. Lesser/EPA-EFE
FlightAware's live flight tracker shows how many planes were currently flying across the U.S. on Monday night. Image courtesy of FlightAware.
May 27 (UPI) — Millions of Americans returning home from the Memorial Day holiday faced thousands of flight delays and cancellations due to storms across the country, sending air and ground travel numbers to new records.
The unofficial start of the summer travel season saw more than 6,000 flight delays and nearly 500 cancellations in the U.S. as of Monday night, according to FlightAware.
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Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport experienced the most delays and cancellations after the Federal Aviation Administration issued a grounding order due to severe thunderstorms. All flights were grounded in Atlanta for more than an hour on Monday morning, and arriving flights were diverted to Savannah-Hilton Head International Airport.
Flights into Boston's Logan International Airport experienced hour-long delays Monday night due to high Memorial Weekend travel volumes.
According to the FAA, New York's three airports – John F. Kennedy International Airport, LaGuardia Airport and Newark International Airport – are experiencing delays averaging two to three hours due to the bad weather.
The Transportation Security Administration said Friday that it screened nearly 3 million people at U.S. airports, a new single-day record, with most of those same travelers due to return home on Monday.
“TSA officers set a new record for the most travelers screened in a single day!” the TSA said in X's post.
“On Friday, May 24, 2,951,163 people were tested at checkpoints across the country, surpassing the previous record set on November 26, 2023.”
The American Automobile Association also predicted a record number of road trips over the holiday weekend, with some 38 million drivers expected to take to the roads.
In a forecast earlier this month, AAA predicted that 43.8 million travelers will head more than 50 miles from home over Memorial Weekend, a 4 percent increase from last year.
“We haven't seen such an increase in travel over Memorial Day weekend in nearly 20 years,” Paula Twiddle, senior vice president of AAA Travel, said in a statement.
“We expect one million more travelers this holiday weekend compared to 2019. Not only is this above pre-pandemic levels, but it also signals a very busy summer travel season ahead.”
