Already people are trying to get an early start to their holiday travels this Christmas holiday.
The temperatures in Chicago are at an estimated all-time high compared to past seasons. More specifically, 2023’s Christmas looks to be a part of the top ten warmest Christmas’ on record. Christmas Eve weather patterns are rising high with an estimated fifty-six degrees Fahrenheit. Christmas Eve Sunday will be mostly dry, however, a brief period of rain can occur due to a wet pattern hovering toward the west.
Regarding the average Christmas day temperature, it could reach a potential thirty-four degrees. Not only will it possibly join the ranking as the seventh-rated warmest Christmas day, but Chicagoans should expect rain to roll in that Monday morning and last until the evening.
The wet conditions will most likely last until the next few days after the Holiday. While the warm weather may be bad news for a white Christmas, it spells good news for those traveling this holiday.
Typically during the holidays, such as Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s, there is a high flight cancellation rate among Chicago’s airlines. This year the percentage of flight cancels is cut in half. Specifically, the cancelation rate is below one percent, with airlines canceling nearly 1.2% of flights rather than the average 2.1%.
However, flight workers hope the winter weather after the week of Christmas will not change that. But as for now, everything seems to run better than last year’s holiday week. Pete Buttigieg, a Transportation Secretary, saw the flights as as some of the “lowest cancellation rates in the last five years.”
During 2022’s holiday season, in combination with the residual pandemic and a heap of snow, airlines did not anticipate a complete meltdown of their systems.
Holiday Meltdown at Airlines Last Christmas
A massive winter storm ran across America, causing massive amounts of flights to be canceled during the Christmas season.
To be precise over 2,6000 flights were canceled on Christmas day, only one thousand less than the flights canceled on Christmas Eve. The lack of flights available, some for a large price, eventually led to the airline starting to pay pocket fees for the would-be passengers. Around ninety percent of the flights belong to Southwest Airlines.
However, the weather is not the sole reason for the massive meltdown. Employees at the time began to report that they could not connect with the airlines through their phones. With computer systems that have not changed since the 1990s, and extremely tight turnaround times for shorter flights, the weather caused just enough pressure to make everything fall apart.
The representative of the Southwest Flight Attendants Union, Lyn Montgomery, relayed that the technology available is not enough.
The phone system the company uses is just not working…They’re just not manned with enough manpower in order to give the scheduling changes to flight attendants, and that’s created a ripple effect that is creating chaos throughout the nation.
President of the Southwest Airlines Pilot Association, Casey Murray, specified how this is not a new problem. Disconnections like this happen before but this is the first time it has global coverage. Not including the fact that the amount of luggage lost caused a record amount of money lost among passengers.
We’ve been having these issues for the past 20 months…We’ve seen these sorts of meltdowns occur on a much more regular basis and it really just has to do with outdated processes and outdated IT. It’s phones, it’s computers, it’s processing power, it’s the programs used to connect us to airplanes — that’s where the problem lies, and it’s systemic throughout the whole airline.
Luckily this year airlines have a new system in place. Hopefully, one that can handle this holiday’s seasonal airline surge.
Written by Brielle R. Buford
Sources
abc7News: Ready, set, travel: The holiday rush to the airports and highways is underway
abc7News: Poor planning, bad luck, systemic challenges | Why is Southwest really canceling flights?
NBC Chicago: Chicago could see one of its warmest Christmases on record — but it won’t be all merry and bright
Featured and Top Image Courtesy of Robert Stinnett‘s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
Inset Image Courtesy of Sergiu Biris‘ Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
