Fourth of July Weekend Sees Thousands of Flights Delayed, Hundreds More Canceled

By Nathalie Voit

Americans who hopped on an airplane for the Fourth of July were in for a rocky start to their holiday.

According to flight-tracking service FlightAware, about 15,000 U.S. flights were delayed over the holiday weekend, with hundreds of more flights canceled.

FlightAware data showed that American Airlines delayed nearly 1,000 flights, or 30% of its departure schedule, on July 1. Meanwhile, Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines saw around one-fourth of its scheduled departures, or 784 flights, postponed on the same day. About 7,000 inbound, outbound, and domestic U.S. flights were delayed on Friday.

Airlines fared slightly better the next day but still posted record delays, particularly on the country’s East Coast. Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey delayed 27% of its mainland schedule on July 2, while Ronald Reagan National Airport outside of Washington D.C. saw 29% of U.S. flights postponed and another 7% of its schedule canceled.

Meanwhile, LaGuardia Airport in NYC saw more than one-tenth of its departures dropped and 20% of its schedule delayed.

Neighboring John F. Kennedy International Airport fared the worst of any U.S. airport on Saturday, with 36% of its schedule delayed, or about 250 flights.

FlightAware tracking data showed that about 5,000 flights were delayed on Saturday.

At the same time, Transportation Security Administration (TSA) checkpoint data released on Saturday showed more than 2.49 million travelers boarded flights on Friday, the highest daily figure since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The number of passengers that passed through security checkpoints at U.S. airports on July 1 surpassed the previous pandemic-era record of 2.46 million set five days earlier on June 26, according to figures from the agency.

TSA spokesperson Lisa Farbstein noted the U.S. is back to pre-pandemic airport traffic levels on Twitter:

“TSA officers screened 2,490,490 people at airport security checkpoints nationwide yesterday, Friday, July 1. It was the highest checkpoint volume since Feb. 11, 2020, when 2,507,588 people were screened. We are back to pre-pandemic checkpoint volume,” she tweeted on Saturday.