The airline is on its third day with a double-digit percentage of flights canceled after the New York area faced a wave of thunderstormsUnited Airlines chief executive Scott Kirby told employees that a shortage of air traffic controllers affected about 150,000 passengers in recent days as the carrier struggles with canceled flights brought on by thunderstorms in the New York area.
In an email late Monday afternoon, Kirby took direct aim at the Federal Aviation Administration, saying short staffing left the agency unable to deal with the inclement weather.An FAA spokesperson said, “We will always collaborate with anyone seriously willing to join us to solve a problem.”
Last weekend, about 26,000 flights by all airlines were delayed and over 4,000 canceled between Saturday and Monday after thunderstorms ripped through parts of the United States, according to data from flight monitoring service FlightAware.
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