Air travelers suffered summer of pain

With Labor Day behind, it can now be said: Summer 2007 was, for air travelers, as bad as it seemed.

U.S. airlines canceled nearly twice as many flights as a year earlier, contributing to a record level of pain for air travelers this summer.

From June 1 to Aug. 15, U.S. carriers canceled more than 30,000 domestic and international flights to the USA's top 30 airports, up from 16,000 last summer, according to a FlightStats analysis for USA TODAY. FlightStats' data show the proportion of flights arriving at least 45 minutes late jumped to 13.4% this summer, up from about 11.2% last summer. FlightStats tracks flights worldwide.

But cancellations create far more havoc for travelers than delays, because passengers don't get where they want to go. Flights are so packed that it can take days for fliers from canceled flights to find seats on later flights.

"This doesn't surprise us," said David Castelveter of airline trade group the Air Transport Association. The ATA warns that delays and cancellations will get worse until the Federal Aviation Administration updates its 40-year-old air-traffic-control system, which will take years.

But multiple factors, including rotten weather and crew shortages, also helped disrupt summer flights. Tornadoes in the Chicago area and torrential rain in Texas forced lots of delays and cancellations there.

"This has been the worst summer travel season I have ever been a part of," says traveler Tom Guenther, a federal bank examiner from North Carolina. Two weeks ago, he found himself cowering in a tunnel under Chicago O'Hare airport after a tornado sighting forced passengers to exit a plane and run for cover. Hours later, after another storm and a mechanical problem, his United Airlines flight home to Charlotte was canceled. He had to spend an extra night in Chicago and take a flight the next day from Chicago Midway airport because O'Hare flights were full. Approximate time elapsed: 22 hours.

Some airlines have struggled with the impact of deep spending cuts. Northwest Airlines, fresh from Chapter 11 reorganization, experienced a pilot shortage in June and July, prompting 3,100 canceled flights. Northwest's reliability improved in August after it agreed to pay pilots overtime for flying extra hours.

Fearful of stranding passengers in planes on the tarmac, other carriers canceled flights in advance of storms. Sue Reiss' recent Mesaba Airlines flight to Atlanta was canceled 18 hours before departure because of a severe weather forecast.

The Michigan-based sales executive rebooked on a later flight, and the storm arrived late. So her second flight was canceled, too. "A nightmare," she says.