115 Hawaii Flights Delayed Saturday As Airline Cancellations Rocket

There was an unexpected spate of flight delays impacting Hawaii on Saturday, during the long-awaited Memorial Day weekend getaway. Read below for Delta’s response. While checking on how the cancellations on the mainland were impacting Hawaii flights today, we were shocked. First, pleasantly so, to find that Hawaii had very few cancelled flights; in fact, just two. Those were both Alaska Airlines. AS858 from Lihue to Portland was cancelled as was AS834 from Honolulu to Portland. As we’ve reported, Alaska has had its share of issues related to pilots, which unfortunately shows no abating for now.

Also see, Scores Of Hawaiian Air Flights Cancelled + Southwest Pilots Safety Warning.

53 Honolulu flight delays Saturday.

Four Alaska Airlines flights were delayed at HNL.
One American Airlines flight was delayed at HNL.
Three Delta Airlines flights were delayed at HNL.
Thirty-one Hawaiian Airlines flights were delayed at HNL.
Twelve Southwest Airlines flights were delayed at HNL.
Two United Airlines flights were delayed at HNL.

27 Maui flight delays Saturday.

Five Alaska Airlines flights were delayed at OGG.
Three American Airlines flights were delayed at OGG.
Thirteen Hawaiian Airlines flights were delayed at OGG.
Six Southwest Airlines flights were delayed at OGG.

9 Kauai flight delays Saturday.

Two Alaska Airlines flights were delayed at OGG.
One American Airlines flight was delayed at OGG.
Two Hawaiian Airlines flights were delayed at OGG.
Four Southwest Airlines flights were delayed at OGG.

23 Kona B.I. flight delays Saturday.

Six Alaska Airlines flights were delayed at KOA.
One Delta Airlines flight was delayed at KOA.
Ten Hawaiian Airlines flights were delayed at KOA.
Four Southwest Airlines flights were delayed at KOA.
Two United Airlines flights were delayed at KOA.

3 Hilo B.I. flight delays Saturday.

Three Hawaiian Airlines flights were delayed at KOA.

1,500+ mainland flights were cancelled Saturday.

Things could be worse here in Hawaii. A lot worse. That’s as over 1,500 flights were cancelled today according to FlightAware, following Friday’s unprecedented cancellation of 2,300 mainland flights.

Delta had the biggest set of problems, with 240 flights cancelled on Saturday. Those were attributed by the airline to a combination of “air traffic control actions” and bad weather. The carrier pledged to try to announce cancelled flights at least 24 hours in advance.

This comes as more of us are again taking to the skies after a long pause during Covid. More mainland flight cancellations are planned through Monday, which we will continue to monitor.

Why are so many flights being cancelled or delayed?

With more than 3,500 mainland flights cancelled so far this weekend, and many more than that delayed, we wanted to know what the cause is. The best answer that we’ve seen so far came from Delta Airlines:

“More than any time in our history, the various factors currently impacting our operation — weather and air traffic control, vendor staffing, increased COVID case rates contributing to higher-than-planned unscheduled absences in some work groups — are resulting in an operation that isn’t consistently up to the standards Delta has set for the industry in recent years.”

Was your flight cancelled or delayed on Memorial Day Weekend?