Flight chaos ahead of expected record-breaking July 4th travel

Don’t count on those Fourth of July plans taking off.

Hundreds of thousands of passengers have continued to have flights delayed and even canceled this week — sparking chaos on what is expected to be the busiest July 4 travel weekend in history.

Since Monday, more than 24,000 US flights have been delayed — 8,850 on Monday alone — with more than 6,000 also canceled, according to FlightAware data.

On Wednesday, more than 8,400 flights across the country were either delayed or canceled.

New York’s major airports have led the way each day, with LaGuardia and Newark taking the top two spots each day — followed by JFK on all but Wednesday.

It is not just a US problem, with an average of more than 30,000 international flights delayed each day this week — with another 11,000 already facing such woe by 7 a.m. Thursday.

Already, nearly 1,000 US flights have been either canceled or delayed Thursday — which the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) predicts will be the heaviest travel day over the July 4 holiday period, with more than 52,500 total flights.

And as of Saturday, planes that aren’t outfitted with new radio altimeters — devices measuring height — won’t be allowed to fly in limited visibility because of potential interference from new 5G wireless service.

All of this comes as the AAA projects 50.7 million Americans will travel this holiday period — an all-time record.

“We’ve never projected travel numbers this high for Independence Day weekend,” said Paula Twidale, Senior Vice President of AAA Travel.

That is expected to be up more than 2 million than those who traveled this time last year, and nearly 2 million more than the record of 49 million set in 2019.

It is expected to include the most to travel by car — with an estimated 43.2 million people driving at least 50 miles from home — and a similar record for those taking to the skies.

Already for the past week, about 2.6 million people a day on average have been flying in the US, about 2% more than in the same period in 2019, according to Transportation Security Administration figures.

The high drama with scrapped flights has led to ongoing finger-pointing by airlines and the FAA as to who is most to blame.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg on Wednesday posted a video aboard a flight to say that his FAA is “closely watching air travel this week.”

“We’ve known that summer is going to be a stress test on the system,” he said, blaming blaming “rough” weather for causing “disruptions, delays and even cancelations.”

“FAA is continuing to work around the clock … to find solutions, get creative and make sure the system is resilient as possible,” he promised.

However, United Airlines — the company that has suffered the most delays and cancelations this week — instead blamed a shortage of federal air traffic controllers for massive disruptions last weekend at its Newark hub.

“We estimate that over 150,000 customers on United alone were impacted this weekend because of FAA staffing issues and their ability to manage traffic,” Kirby wrote in a memo to employees Monday.

Sen. Ted Cruz, a Republican from Texas, where American and Southwest are based, took the airlines’ side in a series of tweets.

If you’re sitting on a tarmac at JFK, LaGuardia or Newark, you can thank politicians and special interests … for putting parochial interests ahead of the efficiency of our nation’s airspace,” he wrote.

The Department of Transport (DOT) “is blaming weather for delays. Nonsense,” he wrote.

“The reality is DOT has known since March it doesn’t have the controllers to handle air traffic in the Northeast. The blame game doesn’t work when you’ve admitted fault at the beginning.”

Either way, it has kept many grounded ahead of the holiday.

Tia Hudson missed her mother’s wedding — and lost her bags — during a four-day stay at Newark.

“My flight has been canceled like five times now. I slept at the airport two nights, I booked two hotels, I spent over $700 since I’ve been here and they said they’re not going to reimburse me because it’s weather-related,” she said. “

“It’s not weather-related. It’s a shortage of pilots and attendants,” she seethed.

With Post wires