Hundreds of flights delayed, canceled during July 4th travel rush

Hundreds of flights were delayed or canceled Friday amid airline staff shortages and protests, as the Fourth of July travel rush got underway.

There were already more than 1,870 flight delays and 270 cancellations — well above the daily average of 210 scrapped flights — domestically as of noon Friday, according to the airline tracking service FlightAware.

More than 48 million people were expected to hit the road for the holiday weekend as airlines struggled to keep up with the soaring summer travel demand.

The number of available pilots and flight attendants along with sky-high fuel costs — which hit a national average of $4.84 a gallon Friday — were expected to cause disruptions, according to experts and airlines.