Topline
Airlines canceled more than 2,800 flights Sunday, according to flight tracker FlightAware, as a winter storm struck parts of the South before heading North.
A Department of Transportation truck is driven down a snowy street on January 16, 2022 in … [+]
Key Facts
2,837 flights had been canceled within, into or out of the U.S. and 2,185 flights were facing delays as of 3:10 p.m., according to FlightAware.
American Airlines canceled 633 flights, accounting for 22% of its flights Sunday, as snowy conditions in its Charlotte, North Carolina, hub grounded the majority of flights at the airport.
PSA Airlines, a subsidiary of American, also canceled 508 flights, or 71% of its total flights.
Charlotte Douglas International Airport was the hardest hit airport in the U.S. with 618 cancellations, or 95% of flights at the airport.
Delta Air Lines’ main hub in Atlanta, Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, also faced weather troubles, leading to 228 flight cancellations—27% of total flights on Sunday.
American said in a statement to Forbes the winter storm has had a “significant impact on our operation,” noting many of the flights were preemptively canceled so that the company could avoid last-minute disruptions, and adding customers affected by the storm could rebook their flights without change fees.
Delta said in a statement to Forbes more than 85% of customers who were impacted by weather cancellations have been given a new scheduled flight time within eight hours of their original flight, and that the company is offerring weather waivers for impacted areas.
Key Background
Airlines have been hit hard throughout the pandemic—American, Delta and United had multiple rounds of furloughs and layoffs, totaling to a loss of about 400,000 employees. All three airlines saw massive stock declines at the start of the pandemic, which still have not recovered to pre-pandemic levels. Aviation experts expected for the 2021 holiday season to be busier for air travel than any point during the pandemic despite the spread of the omicron variant. But airlines struggled to staff flights due to the omicron variant’s spread, leading to thousands of flights being canceled in the U.S. in the days leading up to and after the holidays. Airlines don’t appear to be out of the woods yet—United Airlines was forced to cancel flights earlier this week after about 3,000 workers tested positive for Covid-19, and this weekend’s snow and ice hampered operations throughout the South.
Big Number
74 million. That’s how many people are under winter weather alerts as of Saturday evening, according to the National Weather Service.
Surprising Fact
The governors of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia have declared states of emergencies due to the winter storm. Thousands of people are dealing with power outages in North and South Carolina, according to Duke Energy, an energy provider for the Carolinas.
What To Watch For
As the winter storm heads north, the NWS said it will stretch from the Ohio Valley to New England. Parts of western Pennsylvania could receive a foot of snow on Sunday, and Washington, D.C. is expected to get two to three inches of snow. While New York City is expected to get less than an inch of snow Sunday night and into Monday morning, portions of New York and New Jersey about an hour’s drive from the city could get up to five inches, NPR reports.
Further Reading
Major Winter Storm To Impact Over 100 Million—These States Could Be Hardest Hit (Forbes)
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/annakaplan/2022/01/16/over-2800-us-flights-canceled-as-winter-storm-strikes-south/