How airlines are preparing for record Memorial Day weekend travel

Airlines will be tested during this weekend's unofficial start to the summer travel season. AAA predicts more than 3 million travelers will fly into their destinations over the Memorial Day holiday. CBS News Chris Van Cleave explains how the flight industry has been preparing to handle the Rush. After the chaos we saw last summer, the airport had jammed freeways and long lines. The Memorial Day travel Rush is taking off. It's a lot of people. I'm from a tiny place. This is a bit overwhelming.

 Since Saturday, TSA has screened over 12 point 1 million people, nearly 700,000. More than 2019, Airlines added 1000s of employees since last summer, when more than 45,000 flights were canceled. The biggest issue we have is whether an air traffic control delay is what we need to focus on. FAA staffing issues prompted airlines to reduce flying and caused delays at the Denver Airport last weekend. You were very hard on the airlines about their staffing issues. A year later, ATC is still having its staffing issues. 

Why hasn't that gotten fixed? Well, look, we're going to own anything under our control. We're talking about 5% of the issue. We're hiring up staffing. Meanwhile, the airlines responsible for a much greater share of the delays and cancellations have made improvements since we put that pressure on them a year ago. And Chris joins me now from Chicago's O'Hare International Airport. So Chris, have the airline operations improved since last summer's massive delays and cancellations? From January to President, cancellation rates have stayed under 2%. 

That's, that's nearly a percentage better than where they were. And below actual historical norms for most years. Airlines have been operating reasonably well. But you know, they didn't work well in December, yet the Southwest meltdown, we had those 1000s and 1000s. And 1000s of flights were canceled over the summer, more than 45,000, and many more were delayed. So it's of a low bar to improve over last year's performance. But you're seeing the US airlines operate well, at least for the first four months or so of the year. 

And then this will be the big test, John. Yes, indeed. And it made a pass with flying colors for those who may be traveling. Chris, let me ask you about the roads. AAA predicts that the number of people traveling by car, bus, and train will rise by 20% over 2022. Do we know why? That's a fascinating stat. AAA thinks part of this is comfort with being on mass transit trains, particularly in the East Coast buses. But also cruising is back in a big way. 

People who didn't feel comfortable on a cruise ship last year when the cruise lines began to operate again are all about it this year. In fact, we talked to a woman in Atlanta who hadn't taken a trip since the pandemic. The first thing she was doing was flying to Europe to get on a European cruise for 12 days. But she added a couple extra days on both sides of the trip because she was worried about flight disruptions and didn't want to miss it.