Amid thousands of canceled and delayed flights, Delta has quietly solved the worst travel problem. It's the best I've ever seen

If you've been traveling a lot lately, you know it's been a bit difficult. Since the start of the year, airlines have canceled tens of thousands of flights. Over the Memorial Day weekend alone, more than 2,500 flights were canceled, and the situation only got worse.

This is partly due to bad weather, but largely because airlines are facing staff shortages. These two things combined do what every air traveler dreads – showing up at an airport only to find your flight is delayed, or worse, cancelled.

These disruptions couldn't come at a worse time, either for airlines or for travellers. Experts have long predicted this will be the biggest summer travel season ever, as people get back on planes after two years of being mostly at home during the pandemic. The "voyage of revenge", the idea of ​​people making up for lost opportunities, is a reality.

Airlines can't control the weather, and it takes months to hire and train staff. This means that disturbances are often beyond their immediate control. What they can do, however, is choose how to react if something goes wrong.

It happened to the six of us, returning from a family vacation this summer. We were passing through Minneapolis when our flight was delayed nearly three hours. If you've spent two weeks away from home with four young children, the last thing you want to do is spend three more hours in an airport waiting for your last flight home.

When we got to the gate, however, we saw that Delta had pulled out a large cart full of food and drink for passengers waiting for the delayed flight. There were chips, water and sweets and the gate agent kept reminding people that they were welcome to pick up whatever they wanted. It's amazing how much happier people are when you start handing out snacks.

Obviously, the free snacks don't entirely make up for a three-hour delayed flight, but it does make a difference. It's a small thing that communicates that Delta cares about its customers. And it wasn't just that Delta was offering free snacks, it was obviously something the company had thought of in advance for times like this.

Delta began rolling out what it calls "care carts" in May in Salt Lake City, and has begun expanding to other airports. Before that, gate agents mostly had to figure out how to keep frustrated passengers happy on their own. Some might order a Dominos pizza or try to find some snacks. Now Delta gives them what they need.

"Details matter, especially when things don't go as planned," Allison Ausband, Delta's chief customer experience officer, told Inc. in a statement:

Our teams have a long history of delivering carts full of bottled water and snacks to help customers refresh themselves at the gate while waiting for a delayed flight. We've recently improved the look and feel of these carts because we know that extra comfort and care can go a long way when you're in the middle of your journey. When I saw the new carts in action and the positive impact the experience had on our customers and employees, I knew we needed to install them in as many airports as possible, and quickly.

Obviously, passengers prefer to get where they are going. Most people prefer to spend as little time as possible in an airport, especially if the reason they are in an airport is that their...