The July 4th Aviation Nightmare Fails to Materialize

The air transportation nightmare that many feared the Fourth of July weekend would devolve into failed to materialize. There were delays and cancellations, mostly in the Northeast United States. According to flight tracking company FlightAware, a few large airports in the New York City region had cancellation rates of as high as 5%, with Newark being the worst, at 5.4% of flights cancelled. Delays affected around a fifth of flights at some airports. But nationwide, the picture was far rosier, with cancellations and delays at rates that are common for any summer weekend in the days of the new normal. It probably helped that some airlines were offering pilots attractive overtime rates for flying on their days off.