Canadian airports and airlines saw the highest number of flight delays over the long weekend, more than any other country worldwide. More than two-thirds of Air Canada's flights were delayed on Saturday and Sunday.

Canadian chaos on holiday weekend

This past weekend was a holiday weekend in Canada and the United States, with both countries celebrating their independence. As expected, passenger numbers rose, but so did the number of delays. Surprisingly, Canada had it the worst over the weekend, more than any other country.

FlightAware's flight-tracking service says more than two-thirds of Air Canada's flights on Saturday and Sunday were delayed. To be precise, 717 fights took off late. Air Canada had 14% more delays than the three airlines tied for second place. Canadian airline Jazz Aviation, Air Canada Rouge, and Greek airline Olympic Air saw 53% of flights canceled over the weekend.

Toronto Pearson International Airport was the airport with the second-most delayed flights worldwide over the weekend, with China's Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport coming in at number one. Toronto Pearson had 53% of its flights delayed, more than Paris' Charles de Gaulle and Frankfurt Airport. Montréal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport also claimed a top 10 spot, tied for sixth place along with London's Heathrow Airport. Both airports had 43% of outbound flights delayed.

Because of the recent surge in travel, airlines in Canada (and worldwide) have struggled with staffing shortages. Last week, Air Canada announced that it would cut 15% of its summer schedule in July and August. Air Canada also announced the critical steps in its Aviation Recovery Plan, a plan which it hopes will restore normalcy to the airline's operations.

Helane Becker, an airline analyst for investment firm Cowen, believes air travel will face difficulties throughout the summer. She said,

"Almost every airline encouraged people to retire early or take leaves. And those people that retired early maybe don't want to come back to work. The airlines also used the pandemic to eliminate aircraft types from their fleet, and to ground and retire their oldest aircraft. It's hard to bring these aircraft back once you park them without doing a lot of maintenance. As demand continues to surge, we're basically looking at an inability for the airlines to easily accommodate it. And I think that's true worldwide."

The United States was also hit with many delays and cancellations over the weekend; let's look at what happened.

Independence Day weekend delays

July 4th is Independence Day in the United States. And this year, July 4th landed on a Monday, meaning it was a weekend with a surge in travel. Along with the rise in travel and passenger numbers came numerous delays and cancellations.

The United States saw almost 5,000 delays and more than 300 cancellations yesterday. Today, according to FlightAware, at the time of writing, 3,175 flights have been delayed in the United States, and another 248 have been canceled. This number is likely to increase as there are still hours left of the day in the United States.

In recent days, airlines and federal transportation officials have been quick to blame each other for air travel disruptions. This week, US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg called out airlines for letting numerous staff go during the pandemic, despite billions of dollars in aid from the federal government. Over the weekend, Secretary Buttigieg had one of his flights delayed.

Do you think airlines did a poor job of handling the COVID 19 pandemic, despite receiving massive government bailouts? Let us know in the comments below.