Hundreds of cancelled flights nationwide foreshadow potentially chaotic July 4 holiday

Air travel chaos is looming ahead of the busy 4th of July weekend as hundreds upon hundreds of flights are being cancelled by major airlines throughout the country, leaving passengers stranded amid what has been months of chaos surrounding supply chains and industry logistics. 

On Wednesday afternoon the website FlightAware showed 555 cancellations "within, into, or out of the United States" on Wednesday alone. The service listed a total of about 2,200 flight cancellations worldwide on Wednesday. 

Those steep numbers come after around 800 flight cancellations on Monday of this week, with big-name airlines such as United and Delta axing dozens or hundreds of domestic flights amid staffing issues, supply chain crises and sky-high fuel prices. 

Andrew Levy, the CEO of the budget airline Avelo, told USA Today that "more pilots [need] to enter into the profession as an industry, as a country, that’s important. And until we address certain things to enable that to happen, this is going to become increasingly acute.” 

“The result is going to be less air service in this country and people will pay higher fares," Levy said. 

July 4 is traditionally among the busiest travel days of the year as crowds flock to beaches, resorts and other vacation destinations to enjoy the national holiday.