Thunderstorms, supply chain issues and staffing shortages led to almost and delays at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) earlier this week.
North Texas saw over on Sunday due to severe thunderstorms, according to the National Weather Service. Passengers complained about being stuck on runways as pilots waited for dangerous weather conditions to clear.
The easing of pandemic restrictions has led to a surge in travel, which has spurred the return of airline workers. But protocols mean they can't dive back into the workforce right away.
Mike Boyd, president of the aviation consulting firm Boyd Group International, said those workers require extensive training, which leads to delays.
鈥淎irlines have been trying to add the capacity that the market demands, the challenges, to bring pilots back fast enough to fly the airplanes, they have to go through training,鈥� Boyd said. 鈥淵ou and I can't go into DFW and check bags, we have to have classroom training for that and working with security and hazardous materials.鈥�
Labor shortages aren鈥檛 just affecting airlines though. Boyd adds that the entire supply chain system is seeing similar trends.
鈥淲e can't get enough drivers to drive the trucks to pipelines at some places where we're running out of fuel. I'm just very concerned that the entire supply chain, in many areas, has been broken,鈥� he said.
That means airport hubs like DFW are often crowded due to shortages in jet fuel and workers helping customers with canceled flights.
鈥淎merican Airlines is the hubbing carrier at DFW 鈥� that means a lot of people are connecting. So if they get into DFW to connect on to let's say Oklahoma City and their plane cancels, that airport gets full of people real quick,鈥� Boyd said.
Passengers took to social media to air their grievances with the airline.
12:37, officially 4 hours late now and still sitting in the airplane. At least we aren't at the gate... can't wait to now have to fight rush hour when I land... the worst part is the unapologetic staff... normally at least people are empathetic..
— Thomas R Schroeder III (@Tommy_Schroeder)
Southwest, Spirit and Delta Airlines also experienced similar delays over the week due to weather and fuel shortages.
Got a tip? Email Haya Panjwani at hpanjwani@kera.org. Follow Haya on Twitter @hayapanjw.
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