Over the past week, the Northeastern United States has been hit with a series of storms. This has caused a variety of issues, the chief of which being troubles with travel.
Per the Daily Mail, “more than 7,500 flights across the US have been canceled this week,” while United alone has canceled “more than 2,000 flights since Sunday.”
This has left travelers stranded for days on end, as TikTok user Claire (@clairekgroves) recently documented in a video with over 465,000 views.
“pov: You’re living through a United airlines version of what happened to southwest this past winter,” she writes in the text overlaying the video, referring to a similar issue from Southwest Airlines in December of last year. “everyone’s flights canceled. No flights to get on. Just stuck at the airport for days.”
@clairekgroves Someone help me get home please. This is insane @United Airlines #unitedairlines #unitedairlinestiktok #unitedairline #flightdelayed #airportdiaries #airportproblems #bffspod #airportnightmare #sleepingattheairport #airportcheck #airportproblems #airporthorrorstory #goodbyeunitedairlines #airporthorrorstory #stuckattheairport #viraltiktok #travellife #traveltiktok #newarkairport #newarkairportdelay #newarkairportnj #trending #tcu #collegegirlsgonewild #clairegroves #clairekgroves ♬ Creepy and simple horror background music(1070744)
In the caption, she added, “Someone help me get home please. This is insane @United Airlines.”
While Claire says that the stated reason for the cancelations was the weather, she believes that this was not actually the case.
“…There wasn’t bad weather at all,” she wrote in a comment. “They kept making up a new excuse every delay. Everyone was so confused.”
If United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby is to be believed, then Claire may have a point, though weather issues certainly played a role in the cancelations.
Per USA Today, “On Monday night, United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby sent a letter to his employees in which he mostly put the blame for these ongoing issues at the feet of the Federal Aviation Administration.”
“The FAA frankly failed us this weekend,” the letter reads. “The FAA reduced the arrival rates by 40% and the departure rates by 75% (on Saturday). That is almost certainly a reflection of understaffing/lower experience at the FAA. It led to massive delays, cancellations, diversions as well as crews and aircraft out of position.”
Even with this weather noted, Kirby says that “the weather we saw in EWR is something that the FAA has historically been able to manage without a severe impact on our operation and customers.”
The FAA is currently facing staffing issues due to a variety of factors, such as the pandemic leading to a training backlog and controllers working overtime to make up for shortages. These issues, Kirby seems to be arguing, appear to be making the FAA worse at performing its role.
“We’re beginning to see improvement across our operation,” a United Airlines spokesperson told the Daily Dot via email. “We expect to cancel far fewer seats today compared to yesterday and our baggage backlog at Newark has dropped more than 30% since Tuesday, and off-duty flight attendants are calling in from across the country to staff open trips.”
“It’s all-hands-on-deck as our pilots get aircraft moving, contact center teams work overtime to take care of our customers, and our airport customer service staff works tirelessly to deliver bags and board flights,” the spokesperson continued. “As our operation improves in the days ahead, we will be on track to restore our operation for the holiday weekend.”
Commenters under Claire’s video were quick to share their thoughts and experiences with this issue.
“I just got home after 49 hours of travel,” claimed a user.
“My parents visited me in dallas and their flights back to newark cancelled over and over,” recalled a user. “They had to drive back.”
“Stuck in San Fran til Saturday!!! This was a layover from Hawaii,” stated a third. “they cancelled the flight after we boarded.”
The Daily Dot reached out to Claire via email.
