Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Cancellations Plague United Passengers

Keep your eye on United Airlines as the month runs out, especially if you're flying United, of course.

United has been canceling a pretty hefty number of flights lately, and its pilots union claims that bad weather in the Midwest isn't the only reason. As the month and year wind down, a lot of flight crews are at their limits, procedurally and emotionally. And United, it seems, according to this Chicago Tribune report, has been having a hard time getting enough pilots on the job.

At O'Hare, according to FlightStats.com, there have been 339 United cancellations as of 5.30 p.m. Central time today (there were 3,246 departures and arrivals scheduled for the entire day, with the evening crush still ahead).

Yesterday, there were 636 departures and arrivals cancellations of United flights, out of a total of 2,773 departures and arrivals all day.

Press reports usually note only the departure cancellations. I count both departures and arrivals because both categories represent flights that were not flown at O'Hare, so please be aware of the distinction.

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