DALLAS — Midday Monday, on the FlightAware.com "misery map" tracking flight cancelations and delays, DFW Airport and Love Field had plenty of misery to share.
According to the flight tracking site, 16% of flights originating from DFW Airport were delayed and 8% canceled. Data from Love Field showed 19% of flights delayed and 6% canceled.
Weather accounted for some of the delays but, for the rest, workers on the ground at both airports asked that passengers not blame them.
"We're not giving the product that the passengers deserve," said Greg Cosey, president of the Transport Workers Union Local 513, which represents American Airlines ground crews and fleet services employees at DFW Airport.
"Our guys want the public to know that we are doing the best that we can under these conditions," Cosey said.
Airlines and their vendors furloughed thousands of employees during the pandemic. Now, with air travel returning at a steady pace, re-scheduling all those workers isn't happening at the same speed. Cosey said that, over the last three weeks, American has required mandatory overtime as the union argues for more full-time, and less part-time, assignments.
"I think that they have added flights to their schedules, not realizing that the infrastructure was not totally in place to support the operation," Cosey theorized. "It's not just American. Pretty much every carrier is experiencing the same thing."
Travel industry expert Rick Seaney said it points to a larger resources issue with the entire domestic airline system.
"You've got call system shortages. You've got pilots - in some cases, flight attendants - not being able to get into the right spot," he explained. "So, there's a ton of shortages."
How are the airlines responding?
In a written response to WFAA, American Airlines said that weather "combined with the labor shortages some of our vendors are contending with and the incredibly quick ramp up of customer demand" led to "adjusting a fraction of our scheduled flying through mid-July."
Southwest said its "staffing plan is aligned with our summer schedule, and we are not trimming flights." And that "the airline appreciates the continued interest from job candidates for our available positions."
Meanwhile the union that represents American ground workers at DFW is in discussions with the airline about how existing employees are scheduled and managed.
As for the immediate problem of delays, even the union is asking that passengers - as the airlines often ask - pack their patience, too.
"The long answer to your short question is, it's gonna take a while, I believe," Cosey said of the balance of schedules, staffing, and human resource management that will get air traffic flying smoothly and on-time again.