All eyes on airlines as July Fourth holiday weekend nears

DALLAS (AP) — If you’re flying this holiday weekend, be prepared for crowded airports, full planes, and higher-than-normal chances that your flight will be delayed or even canceled. Airlines have stumbled badly over the last two holiday weekends, and the number of Americans flying over the July Fourth weekend is expected to set records for the pandemic era. Problems have been popping up already, with high numbers of cancellations this week, some of them caused by thunderstorms that snarled air traffic. Tracking service FlightAware says American Airlines canceled 8% of its flights on Tuesday and Wednesday, and United Airlines scrubbed 4% of its schedule on those same days.