Less staffing and higher demand causing flying frustrations

MIAMI – People stood in long lines Tuesday for security and for the ticket counters at Miami International Airport. 

It has been a familiar sight this summer.

“I’ve seen people miss their connecting flights,” said Alijah Caesar, who was waiting for his bags. “I’ve seen a lot of people frustrated at the airport.”

For many, the long holiday weekend made for a hectic travel time.

“It’s not been ideal,” said Gary Stirling, who was trying to return home after his first trip to Florida.  “We were supposed to go back to London at 7:30. It’s been delayed to 9:30 which means we will miss our connecting flight to Glasgow.”

Flight delays and cancellations have been a problem across the country for weeks now.

CBS News Senior Travel Adviser Peter Greenberg says less staffing and higher demand plays a part.

“We still have the staffing shortages,” he said. “Not just the pilots, but the people who work under the wings, the ground handlers, the baggage loaders, the counter agents.”

Tuesday, as of 3:30 in the afternoon, FLL had 81 delayed flights and 12 canceled.

 MIA had 86 delayed flights and 10 canceled.

 That was an improvement since a few weeks ago, though.

From July 1-5 at MIA, about 80% arrivals and 76% departures were on time. That is opposed to about 68% of arrivals and 65% of departures on time in June.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said, while this holiday weekend was an improvement since Memorial Day weekend, airlines need to do more.

“It’s great news that demand is back and people are returning to the skies,” he said. “But the airlines need to be prepared to service the tickets that they sell.”

In a statement, Capt. Joe DePete, the president of the Air Line Pilots Association, said:

“What we are currently experiencing is a failure by the airlines to adequately plan for the increased travel demand, and to add insult to injury, they are trying to blame frontline aviation workers for their missteps.”

TSA screened more than 11 million travelers from June 30th through July 4th, which is just shy of pre-pandemic numbers for that same five-day period in 2019.

Close to 2.5 million passengers were screened on Friday alone, making it the busiest day at U.S. airports since the start of the pandemic.

Greenberg said he does not anticipate improvements this summer and recommended for anyone trying to plan ahead, to aim for traveling after September 15.