Opinion

Air travel is in chaos — and there are no easy solutions

If you’ve traveled much by air over the past few months, chances are you have encountered difficulties: flight delays and cancellations, misplaced luggage, massive lines for check-in and security. Commercial air travel is in disarray — and, unfortunately, there is no quick solution in sight.

According to the flight-tracking company FlightAware, in the past two months, 2.2 percent of flights by U.S. carriers have been canceled and 22 percent — or 260,000 flights — have been delayed. The pattern is by no means limited to the United States: 52.9 percent of flights departing from Toronto Pearson International Airport were delayed between June 1 and July 12; London’s Heathrow Airport, where 40 percent of flights were delayed, announced it would restrict the number of departing passengers to 100,000 daily.