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    British Army's Twitter and YouTube accounts hacked to promote cryptocurrency scams

    A hacker, or hackers, took over the Twitter and YouTube accounts of the British Army on Sunday.
    The army’s Twitter profile was altered to show images of fake NFTs and promote crypto giveaway schemes.
    Its YouTube account, meanwhile, aired livestreams with clips of Elon Musk and directed users to crypto scam websites.

    A screenshot of the British Army’s Twitter profile when it was hacked, via Wayback Machine. Its profile and banner pictures were changed to resemble a nonfungible token collection called “The Possessed.”

    A hacker compromised the social media accounts of the British Army to push people toward cryptocurrency scams.
    The army’s Twitter and YouTube profiles were taken over by the hacker, or hackers — the identity of whom is not yet known — on Sunday. The Twitter account’s name was changed to “pssssd,” and its profile and banner pictures were changed to resemble a nonfungible token collection called “The Possessed.”

    The Possessed’s official Twitter account warned users of a “new verified SCAM account” impersonating the collection of NFTs — tokens representing ownership of pieces of online content.
    Earlier Sunday, the account was renamed “Bapesclan” — the name of another NFT collection — while its banner image was changed to a cartoon ape with clown makeup on. The hacker also began retweeting posts promoting NFT giveaway schemes.
    Bapesclan didn’t immediately respond to a CNBC direct message on Twitter.
    The name of the U.K. military’s YouTube account, meanwhile, was changed to “Ark Invest,” the investment firm of Tesla and bitcoin bull Cathie Wood.
    The hacker deleted all the account’s videos and replaced with them with livestreams of old clips taken from a conversation with Elon Musk and Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey on bitcoin that was hosted by Ark in July 2021. Text was added to the livestreams directing users to crypto scam websites.

    Both accounts have since been returned to their rightful owner.
    “The breach of the Army’s Twitter and YouTube accounts that occurred earlier today has been resolved and an investigation is underway,” Britain’s Ministry of Defense tweeted Monday.
    “The Army takes information security extremely seriously and until their investigation is complete it would be inappropriate to comment further.”
    A Twitter spokesperson confirmed the British Army’s account “was compromised and has since been locked and secured.”
    “The account holders have now regained access and the account is back up and running,” the spokesperson told CNBC via email.

    A YouTube representative was not immediately available for comment when reached by CNBC.
    Tobias Ellwood, a British Conservative lawmaker who chairs the defense committee in Parliament, said the breach “looks serious.”
    “I hope the results of the investigation and actions taken will be shared appropriately.”
    It’s not the first time a high-profile social media account has been exploited by hackers to promote crypto scams. In 2020, the Twitter accounts of Musk, President Joe Biden and numerous others were taken over to swindle their followers of bitcoin.
    — CNBC’s Lora Kolodny contributed to this report

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    Thailand ends almost all travel restrictions — but one key rule remains

    Travelers wondering what it’s like to visit Thailand now may be interested to know the country is “allowing almost everything” again.
    That’s according to the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), the governmental entity responsible for promoting tourism to the country.

    Masks are no longer required, and the country’s color-coded system — which placed limits that varied by province on dining activities, gatherings and travel — is also a thing of the past, according to TAT.
    It’s also far easier to get into Thailand now too.

    What’s needed

    Masks, which were once required at the beach, are no longer mandatory in Thailand.
    Lillian Suwanrumpha | Afp | Getty Images

    Unvaccinated travelers who show up in Thailand without a negative test result, taken within 72 hours of traveling, will be required to pay for and take a Covid-19 test on-site, according to TAT. Travelers who test positive must also pay for their medical expenses, according to a TAT representative.

    Foreign travelers still must show passports and visas, if needed, to enter.

    ‘Thailand Pass’ no longer required

    Travelers no longer need to apply for a “Thailand Pass” to enter. Introduced in May, it required travelers to submit proof of vaccination, medical insurance and other documents before departure.

    We expect the momentum to continue … [now that] the Thai government removed the final restrictions for international travelers.

    Michael Marshall
    CCO of Minor Hotels

    Fewer rules, more tourists

    It didn’t take long for tourists to react to Thailand’s loosened travel rules.  
    The day after the “Thailand Pass” was scrapped, tourist arrivals rose 20% to Phuket International Airport, with an estimated 9,000 people arriving on Friday, according to a report published by the Thai Public Broadcasting Service.
    That same day, the number of people crossing into Thailand at various checkpoints along the borders with Malaysia and Laos also rose, according to the article.   

    Indian nationals led the increase in travelers flying into Phuket last weekend, according to the Thai Public Broadcasting Service.
    Mladen Antonov | Afp | Getty Images

    The number of online searches for hotel bookings also climbed starting July 1, said Michael Marshall, chief commercial officer of the Thai-based hotel operator Minor Hotels.
    “Although it’s early days since all restrictions have been lifted, we’ve seen close to 10,000 new searches on our website for Thailand destinations from various markets collectively since July 1st, which is a very encouraging sign of things to come.”
    Even before the rule changes, Thailand’s tourism industry was picking up steam.   
    International arrivals nearly quadrupled from January to May this year, according to Thailand’s Ministry of Tourism and Sports. More than 1.3 million foreigners arrived during this time, compared with fewer than 35,000 during the same period in 2021, according to the ministry’s statistics.

    From January to May in 2022, 43% of Thailand’s visitors hailed from Asia, followed by 38% from Europe, according to Thailand’s Ministry of Tourism & Sports.
    Alex Ogle | Afp | Getty Images

    “We expect the momentum to continue … [now that] the Thai government removed the final restrictions for international travelers,” said Marshall.  
    Tourism arrivals increased the most this year to Phuket, Koh Samui and areas in northern Thailand, he said.  

    Road to recovery

    Thailand’s tourism recovery may be headed in the right direction, but the road to recovery is expected to be long as inflation, increasing travel costs and rising Covid rates rattle global travelers. The loss of travelers from its largest source market, China, won’t help matters this year either.
    Given these headwinds, Thai officials are predicting between five and 15 million international arrivals this year — a huge increase from last year’s 428,000 foreign arrivals, but a far cry from the nearly 40 million tourists who arrived in 2019, according to Reuters. More

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    Here are the China trends investors bet money on during a sluggish few months

    Manufacturing companies in China snagged the most investment deals in the first half of the year among 37 sectors tracked by business database Qimingpian.
    During that time, roughly a quarter of early-stage to pre-IPO manufacturing deals were related to semiconductors, preliminary data showed.
    The interest in the industry came despite an overall drop in deals in China.

    A factory in Suqian, Jiangsu province, China, on May 9, 2022.
    Future Publishing | Future Publishing | Getty Images

    BEIJING — By the numbers, manufacturing companies in China snagged the most investment deals in the first half of the year among 37 sectors tracked by business database Qimingpian.
    In fact, the number of early-stage to pre-IPO deals in manufacturing rose by about 70% year-on-year despite Covid controls and a plunge in Chinese stocks during the last six months.

    About 300, or roughly a quarter of those deals, were related to semiconductors, preliminary data showed. Several of the investors listed were government-related funds.
    Data on early-stage investments aren’t always complete due to the private nature of the deals. But available figures can reflect trends in China.
    Investor interest in chip companies comes as Beijing has cracked down on consumer-focused internet companies, while promoting the development of tech such as integrated circuit design tools and equipment for producing semiconductors.
    Manufacturing accounted for about 21% of investment deals in the first half of the year, according to Qimingpian. The second-most popular industry was business services, followed by health and medicine.

    Electric car and transportation-related start-ups ranked first by capital raised, at 193 billion yuan ($28.82 billion), based on available data. Monetary amounts were not disclosed for many deals.

    “In the last 12 months I think that there’s been a lot of hot capital chasing after a few deals that are in sectors that the government is promoting heavily,” said Gobi Partners managing partner Chibo Tang, without naming specific industries. He said the trend has resulted in dramatic increases in valuation, while fundamentals haven’t changed much.
    A two-month lockdown in Shanghai and Covid-related restrictions hit business sentiment and prevented people from traveling to discuss and close deals.
    In the first half of the year, the overall number of investment deals in China dropped by 29% from the same period a year ago, and declined by 25% from the second half of last year, according to CNBC calculations of Qimingpian data.
    “Given the market downturn in the recent months, there is a lot more capital on the sidelines,” Gobi Partners’ Tang said Monday on CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia.”
    His firm expects more early-stage investment opportunities will arise in the next 12 months, as valuations drop. Tang noted how many start-ups that raised capital 18 months ago had growth forecasts that now are being reset lower.
    “Founders are having a more difficult time raising money,” he said, “so the conversations we are having with them is how they should conserve capital, how they should extend their runway.”

    Read more about China from CNBC Pro

    Over the last 12 months, Beijing’s crackdown on tech and education companies following Didi’s IPO in New York has paused the ability of investment funds to cash out easily on their bets via an initial public offering.
    While the future of Chinese stock listings in the U.S. remains in limbo, many start-ups have opted for a market closer to home.
    But as of June 14, more than 920 companies were still in line to go public in mainland China and Hong Kong, according to an EY report. That was little changed from March.
    “Pipelines remain strong partly due to backlog from some delayed IPOs since Q1,” EY said in the report.
    Sentiment in mainland markets picked up as Covid controls eased in the last few weeks. Despite year-to-date declines of more than 6%, the Shanghai composite surged by nearly 6.7% in June for its best month since July 2020.

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    As interest rates climb and the economy cools, can companies pay their debts?

    Welcome to the American corporate-debt market of 2022. Often the only risky bonds that are being issued are the legacy debts of a now ancient-seeming time—when interest rates were low and a recession was unthinkable. Elsewhere, the high-yield market has almost ground to a halt. A paltry $83bn of risky debt has been issued so far in 2022, 75% less than in the same period last year. A sharp rise in interest rates in the first half of this year has cooled credit markets, wrong-footed investors and complicated bankers’ lives. In January Bank of America, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs and a handful of other banks agreed to finance a $15bn deal for two private-equity firms to buy Citrix, a software company. They promised to issue the riskiest $4bn of that debt at a maximum interest rate of 9%. At the time, the average yield on bonds with a credit rating of ccc, a speculative grade, was around 8%. The Citrix deal is expected to close some time in July. If bankers cannot sell the debt below the interest-rate cap they will be on the hook for the difference. But the yield on ccc-rated bonds has soared above 14%, making it difficult for the banks to sell the debt to investors below the cap. “If the market is anything like it is today, those banks are going to lose hundreds of millions—and potentially a billion—dollars on this deal alone,” says Roberta Goss of Pretium, a debt-investment manager. The stakes in aggregate are far higher. A steady decline in interest rates over the past 30 years encouraged companies to borrow record amounts. Now the cost of servicing and refinancing that debt mountain is climbing, profits are being dented by rising costs and inventories are piling up at some firms as demand slows. Does a corporate-debt meltdown loom?America’s last big debt crisis, in 2007-09, was in housing. The stock of household debt relative to gdp had climbed sharply as lenders had aggressively issued mortgages and property prices had soared. When interest rates rose, borrowers began to default. Some 3m households were eventually foreclosed on in 2008. This time it seems far less likely that households will be the borrowers struggling. Lending standards have been tightened and debt levels have fallen. Household debt to gdp peaked at 99% in 2008 but has since tumbled to just 75%. By contrast, corporate debt as a share of gdp, at around 80%, has been at or near record highs during the past two years (see chart). To understand where problems might arise, it is important to look across the many funding options available to firms and their owners. American companies owe around $12.5trn. Some $6.7trn of that is in bonds, mostly issued by large or mid-size public companies. An additional $1.3trn is loans from banks, and another $1.1trn is mortgage debt. The rest—over $3trn—is financing from non-banks, comprising mostly of either private credit, typically loans made for private-equity buy-outs, or “syndicated” loans, which originate in banks but are split into pieces and sold to investors, or sometimes bundled into other debt securities. The bond market, as the biggest source of debt, might seem like the natural place to go looking for trouble. But firms that issued bonds are “relative winners” of the rise in interest rates, says Eric Beinstein of JPMorgan Chase, because most bonds pay fixed coupons. Of the $5trn-worth of corporate bonds issued since the start of 2020 some 87% pay fixed coupons. And those coupon rates are at all-time lows. The average coupon on an investment-grade bond is just 3.6%—half the rate in the early 2000s and still below the level in 2019. That will insulate borrowers as rates rise. These fixed-rate bonds are not due to mature soon, either. The riskier high-yield end of the bond market—the roughly $1.5trn owed by sub-investment-grade issuers, which tend to be smaller or heavily indebted companies—saw a wave of refinancing in 2020 and 2021. The result is that only a tiny $73bn-worth of high-yield bonds are due to mature in 2022 and 2023. The peak of risky-bond maturation will not come until 2029.The impact of rising rates is likely to be much greater in the syndicated-loan and private-debt markets, which typically issue floating-rate debt (although some of that rate risk may have been hedged). They have also seen explosive growth. Between 2015 and 2021 the value of outstanding high-yield bonds grew a little, from around $1.3trn to $1.5trn. By contrast, syndicated loans grew from $900bn in 2015 to $1.4trn over the same period. Private credit was the runt in 2015, with just $500bn in assets under management. Now, with $1.1trn in assets, it rivals its other risky debt peers.John Kline of New Mountain, a private-credit firm, argues that the growing market share of private credit is a reflection of the fact that it offers issuers price certainty and is “much easier to deal with” than slicing up a bank loan through a syndication process, or issuing a bond. He points out that the barbarian days of private-equity shops leveraging firms with 85% debt to total value are long gone. The average debt-to-value ratio for private-equity deals last year was closer to 50%.Still, that ratio is less reassuring once you consider how far private-equity valuations might have fallen this year (the formal figures are revised infrequently, unlike public-market valuations). And with great growth seems to have come fresh risk. Compared with the profits of the firms they acquired, debt levels look much higher: equal to an average of six times gross operating profit, a little higher than the record set in 2019 or in any of the past 20 years. “Whenever a market grows quickly, there can be a sort of reckoning if the environment changes,” says Mr Beinstein. The challenge, he says, is getting hold of any details or data on private deals. In the bright lights of public markets it is easy enough to find evidence suggesting that companies are not facing an imminent crisis. The problem is that a chunk of the debt lurks in the shadows. ■ More

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    'Minions: The Rise of Gru' tops $108 million as parents flock back to cinemas, kids in tow

    Universal and Illumination’s “Minions: The Rise of Gru” generated more than $108 million in ticket sales during its domestic opening weekend.
    The animated feature represented 54% of all domestic moviegoers over the weekend, with 68% of ticket holders being part of family groups, according to data from EntTelligence.
    The film is expected to add another $20 million in ticket sales in the U.S. and Canada on Monday, bringing its holiday weekend total to $128 million.

    “Minions: The Rise of Gru” is the sequel to the 2015 film, “Minions,” and spin-off/prequel to the main “Despicable Me” film series.

    Families have gone bananas for “Minions: The Rise of Gru.”
    Over the weekend, the Universal and Illumination animated feature tallied more than $108 million in ticket sales.

    The fifth film in the Despicable Me franchise generated an additional $93.7 million from international markets, bringing its estimated opening weekend haul to $202 million globally.
    “With the incredible success of ‘Minions,’ the notion that family audiences were avoiding movie theaters due to Covid concerns can be shelved,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore.
    Box office analysts had wondered if this segment of moviegoers was still avoiding cinemas after Disney and Pixar’s “Lightyear” took in just $51 million during its domestic debut last month, below expectations of $70 million and $85 million.
    It was unclear if tough box office competition led to “Lightyear’s” less than stellar debut or if consumers were confused about the film’s release. After all, there has not been a theatrical release of a Pixar film since 2020′s “Onward.” The last three from the animation studio, “Soul,” “Luca” and “Turning Red,” were all released on streaming service Disney+.
    “Minions: The Rise of Gru” represented 54% of all domestic moviegoers over the weekend, with 68% of ticket holders being part of family groups, according to data from EntTelligence.

    “What this weekend has showcased is a triumphant return to cinemas by families, laying to rest any lingering and outdated pandemic narrative that parents and kids only want to watch movies at home,” said Shawn Robbins, chief analyst at BoxOffice.com. “When the right content is out there, people will show up.”
    The film is expected to add another $20 million in ticket sales in the U.S. and Canada on Monday, bringing its holiday weekend total to $128 million.
    Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC. NBCUniversal is the distributor of “Minions: The Rise of Gru.”

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    American Airlines scheduling glitch allows pilots to drop thousands of July flights

    The pilots’ union said that aviators were able to drop assignments that included 12,000 flights.
    American said the majority of dropped trips were restored and that it doesn’t expect an impact to its operation, including during the July Fourth weekend.
    A similar issue occurred in 2017 before Christmas.

    An American Airlines Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner approaches for a landing at the Miami International Airport on December 10, 2021 in Miami, Florida.
    Joe Raedle | Getty Images

    A glitch in a scheduling platform allowed American Airlines pilots to drop thousands of trips in July last night, their union said Saturday, a headache for the airline as it tries to minimize flight disruptions during a booming travel season.
    American confirmed the issue and said it didn’t expect the problem to affect its operation, including during the July Fourth holiday weekend.

    “As a result of this technical glitch, certain trip trading transactions were able to be processed when it shouldn’t have been permitted,” the airline said in a statement. “We already have restored the vast majority of the affected trips and do not anticipate any operational impact because of this issue.”
    More than 12,000 July flights lacked either a captain, first officer or both, after pilots dropped assignments, the Allied Pilots Association said earlier.
    Pilots can routinely drop or pick up trips, but time off in the summer or holidays is hard to come by for airline employees as schedules peak to cater to strong demand.
    On Saturday alone, American had more than 3,000 mainline flights scheduled and they were 93% full, according to an internal tally. Flights left unstaffed, however, are an additional strain on any airline.
    The glitch occurred during a rocky start to the Fourth of July weekend when thunderstorms and staffing issues caused thousands of U.S. flight delays and hundreds of cancellations.

    American and its pilots’ union, whose relationship has been fraught, are in the middle of contract negotiations and the airline most recently offered nearly 17% raises through 2024. The union’s new president, Capt. Ed Sicher, began a three-year term on Friday.
    American’s pilots have picketed recently against grueling schedules, something they want to be addressed in a new contract. Pilots at Delta and Southwest have picketed in recent weeks for similar reasons.
    American said it has suspended a platform that allows pilots to change their schedules while it investigates the issue.
    “We understand these are important tools for our pilots and are working as quickly as possible. We will provide updates throughout the day as we learn more,” American told pilots in an email Saturday.
    Dennis Tajer, an American Airlines captain and spokesman for the Allied Pilots Association, said the company failed to keep the IT system working properly and creating “uncertainty for passengers and pilots.”
    A similar issue occurred in 2017, when a technology problem let American’s pilots take vacation during the busy December holiday period. The carrier offered pilots 150% pay for pilots that picked up assignments.

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    Some experts say a recession is coming. Here's how to prepare your portfolio

    The S&P 500 on Thursday capped its worst six-month start to a year since 1970.
    Some 68% of chief financial officers expect a recession to occur during the first half of 2023, according to a CNBC survey.
    Experts suggest diversifying your portfolio, including bonds despite falling prices, and adding to cash reserves.

    Phonlamaiphoto | Istock | Getty Images

    Months of stock market volatility, surging inflation and rising interest rates have left many investors wondering if a recession is coming. 
    The stock market tumbled again on Thursday, with the S&P 500 capping its worst six-month start to a year since 1970. In all, it’s down more than 20% year to date. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq Composite are also down significantly since the beginning of 2022, dropping more than 15% and nearly 30%, respectively.

    Meanwhile, consumer feelings about the economy have plummeted, according to the University of Michigan’s closely-watched Survey of Consumers, measuring a 14.4% decline in June and a record low for the report.
    More from Personal Finance:Inflation is making Fourth of July celebrations more expensive than ever’It’s like going to the DMV online’: How to buy Series I bondsHere are 3 ways to deal with inflation, rising rates and your credit 
    Some 68% of chief financial officers expect a recession to occur during the first half of 2023, according to CNBC’s CFO survey. However, expert forecasts vary about the possibility of an economic downturn.

    “We all understand that markets go through cycles and recession is part of the cycle that we may be facing,” said certified financial planner Elliot Herman, partner at PRW Wealth Management in Quincy, Massachusetts.
    However, since no one can predict if and when a downturn will occur, Herman pushes for clients to be proactive and make sure their portfolio is ready.

    Loading chart…

    Diversify your portfolio

    Diversification is critical when preparing for a possible economic recession, said Anthony Watson, a CFP and founder and president of Thrive Retirement Specialists in Dearborn, Michigan.
    You can reduce company-specific risk by opting for funds rather than individual stocks because you’re less likely to feel a company going bankrupt within an exchange-traded fund of 4,000 others, he said.

    Value stocks tend to outperform growth stocks going into a recession.

    Anthony Watson
    Founder and president of Thrive Retirement Specialists

    He suggests checking your mix of growth stocks, which are generally expected to provide above-average returns, and value stocks, typically trading for less than the asset is worth.     
    “Value stocks tend to outperform growth stocks going into a recession,” Watson explained.
    International exposure is also important, and many investors default to 100% domestic assets for stock allocations, he added. While the U.S. Federal Reserve is aggressively fighting inflation, strategies from other central banks may trigger other growth trajectories.

    Revisit bond allocations

    Since market interest rates and bond prices typically move in opposite directions, the Fed’s rate hikes have sunk bond values. The benchmark 10-year Treasury, which rises when bond prices fall, topped 3.48% on June 14, the highest yield in 11 years. 
    Despite slumping prices, bonds are still a key part of your portfolio, Watson said. If stocks plummet heading into a recession, interest rates may also decrease, allowing bond prices to recover, which can offset stock losses.
    “Over time, that negative correlation tends to show itself,” he said. “It’s not necessarily day to day.”

    Loading chart…

    Advisors also consider duration, which measures a bond’s sensitivity to interest rate changes based on the coupon, time to maturity and yield paid through the term. Generally, the longer a bond’s duration, the more likely it may be affected by rising interest rates.
    “Higher-yielding bonds with shorter maturities are attractive now, and we have kept our fixed income in this area,” Herman from PRW Wealth Management added.

    Assess cash reserves

    Amid high inflation and low savings account yields, it’s become less attractive to hold cash. However, retirees still need a cash buffer to avoid what’s known as the “sequence of returns” risk.
    You need to pay attention to when you’re selling assets and taking withdrawals, as it may cause long-term harm to your portfolio. “That is how you fall prey to the negative sequence of returns, which will eat your retirement alive,” said Watson at Thrive Retirement Specialists.
    However, retirees may avoid tapping their nest egg during periods of deep losses with a significant cash buffer and access to a home equity line of credit, he added.

    Of course, the exact amount needed may depend on monthly expenses and other sources of income, such as Social Security or a pension. 
    From 1945 to 2009, the average recession lasted 11 months, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research, the official documenter of economic cycles. But there’s no guarantee a future downturn won’t be longer.
    Cash reserves are also important for investors in the “accumulation phase,” with a longer timeline before retirement, said Catherine Valega, a CFP and wealth consultant at Green Bee Advisory in Winchester, Massachusetts.

    I do tend to be more conservative than than many because I have seen three to six months in emergency expenses, and I don’t think that’s enough.

    Catherine Valega
    Wealth consultant at Green Bee Advisory

    “People really need to make sure that they have sufficient emergency savings,” she said, suggesting 12 months to 24 months of expenses in savings to prepare for potential layoffs.
    “I do tend to be more conservative than many,” she said, noting the more widely-touted suggestion of three to six months of expenses. “I don’t think that’s enough.”
    With extra savings, there’s more time to strategize your next career move after a job loss, rather than feeling pressure to accept your first job offer to cover the bills.
    “If you have enough in liquid emergency savings, you are providing yourself with more options,” she said.

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    Fourth of July travel surge puts airlines — and passengers — to the test

    The rate of flight cancellations and delays is higher this year than before the pandemic thanks to bad weather and staffing shortages.
    Some airlines have trimmed their schedules to give themselves more wiggle room.

    The Fourth of July holiday weekend will put airlines to the test after a messy spring angered travelers and drew sharp criticism from Washington.
    Already this year, the rate of flight cancellations and delays in June was higher than before the pandemic as a result of bad weather and staffing shortages. And airlines and federal officials have been scrambling to ease frustrations ahead of the busy holiday weekend.

    This week, Delta took the unusual step of allowing travelers to change flights for free, without paying a difference in fare, if they can fly outside of the busy July 1-4 weekend, if they can travel anytime through July 8. JetBlue Airways offered attendance bonuses for flight attendants this spring to ensure solid staffing. American Airlines regional airline Envoy is offering pilots triple pay to pick up extra trips through July.

    Travelers at LaGuardia Airport in New York on June 30, 2022.
    Leslie Josephs | CNBC

    And carriers including Delta, Spirit , JetBlue, Southwest and United recently trimmed their schedules to give themselves more wiggle room for when things go wrong.
    The moves come as fares have soared and passenger counts near pre-pandemic levels. About 2.6 million people could depart U.S. airports each day of the weekend, according to estimates from the fare-tracker Hopper.

    Travelers have largely been willing to pay the higher fares after being cooped up for two years in the pandemic. That’s been a boon for carriers that are more than making up for a surge in fuel costs. But flying is turning out to be a headache for many.
    Nearly 176,000 flights arrived at least 15 minutes late between June 1 and June 29. That represents more than 23% of scheduled flights, according to flight-tracker FlightAware. And more than 20,000 − nearly 3% − were canceled.

    That’s up from 20% of flights being delayed and 2% being cancelled in the same period of 2019.
    By late Friday afternoon, 425 U.S. flights were canceled and more than 4,500 were delayed. The delays included more than 600 American Airlines flights, or 18% of the carrier’s mainline schedule for the day, and 450 Delta flights, 14% of the airline’s schedule, according to tally from FlightAware.
    Consumer complaints are piling up. In April, the latest available data, the Transportation Department received 3,105 from travelers about U.S. airlines, up nearly 300% from April 2021, and at nearly double the rate during the same period last year.
    Airlines and the Federal Aviation Administration have sparred over who’s to blame. Airlines chalk up the disruptions to bad weather, their staffing shortages and staffing problems at the government’s air traffic control.
    With demand for flights to Florida rising among vacationers, airlines have complained in particular about congestion stemming from a key air traffic control center in the state that oversees planes in flight over a large swath of the Southeast.
    To avoid getting caught in those delays, Frontier Airlines CEO Barry Biffle told CNBC this week that the carrier is changing how it schedules crews, limiting flying through that airspace to twice on single assignment. Flight delays tend to ripple through the rest of the network since crews arrive late for their next next flights.
    The FAA, for its part, has called out moves by airlines to let go of tens of thousands of workers through buyouts, despite getting $54 billion in taxpayer payroll aid during the pandemic as a part of a rescue package that prohibited layoffs.
    Space launches and military exercises are other obstacles.
    Political pressure on airlines is rising. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has repeatedly urged airlines to ensure they are ready for the summer travel season and to reduce disruptions after the recent spate of cancellations and delays, including one that affected a flight the secretary planned to take. Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.) also this week said airlines should be fined $55,000 per passenger for cancelling flights they know they cannot staff.
    On Thursday, the FAA’s acting Administrator Billy Nolen and other top agency officials held a call with airline executives to discuss weekend planning, including the agency’s use of overtime to staff its facilities, traffic and routing plans, according to a person familiar with the meeting. The call was in addition to regular planning meetings with airlines.

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