Another 700 flights were canceled on Monday after a chaotic weekend

Delta (DA) It alone made at least 214 flights on Monday, or 7% of its operations, while united (UAL) 122 flights canceled and American Airlines (AAL) 62 cancelled. CNN has contacted the three airlines for comment on the flight cancellations.

will be summer hell travelExperts warn. Although airlines received $54 billion in federal aid during the height of Covid to avoid forced layoffs, they now have fewer employees than they did before the pandemic — especially pilots — after offering buyouts and early retirement packages to cut staff and save money. As a result, operations can quickly collapse when the weather is bad or air traffic control centers are understaffed or ill.

Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport and Newark Liberty International in the New York City area were affected by Monday’s cancellations, with Newark alone responsible for more than 100 canceled flights.

According to FlightAware, 634 US flights were canceled on Saturday and 868 were canceled on Sunday.

“More than at any time in our history, the various factors currently affecting our operations — weather and air traffic control, vendor personnel, increased Covid case rates contributing to higher-than-planned unscheduled absences in some workgroups — are driving a process in which to operate,” Allison said. Abend, Delta’s Chief Customer Experience Officer, said in an online post: “Does not consistently meet the standards that Delta has set for the industry in recent years.”

But critics say airlines should have anticipated these problems ahead of the summer travel season.

“When you test an airline’s operating model, you see the same results,” Capt. Dennis Tajer, a spokesman for the Allied Pilots Association, the pilots union of American Airlines, said earlier this month.