Flight headaches: 3,300 cancellations, 24,500 delays mar post-Thanksgiving travel rush
The Thanksgiving getaway? Not a problem for airline passengers. But the return was not as smooth.
Airlines canceled more than 3,200 flights and delayed 23,000 others from Saturday into Monday, marring travel for tens of thousands of passengers during one of the year's busiest periods for air travel. Sunday turned out to be the busiest day ever for air travel, according to the Transportation Security Administration, which said it screened more than 3.1 million passengers as Americans returned home from Thanksgiving.
The worst came over the weekend, but lingering problems crept into Monday, with more than 320 flights canceled and another 2,940 delayed as of 12:20 p.m. EST, according to flight-tracking service FlightAware. The cancellations were most pronounced across a number of Midwestern airports. At Chicago's O'Hare International Airport (ORD), a combined 64 departures and arrivals had been canceled — though that represented only about 2% of the day's schedule there.
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Saturday was the biggest flash point for flyers, with 1,979 cancellations on U.S. flights. At O'Hare — a hub for both United Airlines and American Airlines — nearly half the day's schedule was canceled. At Chicago's Midway International Airport (MDW), a major base for Southwest Airlines, about 40% of the day's schedule was canceled Saturday.
By Sunday, the storm had pulled out of the region, but problems remained. Nearly 13,000 Sunday flights were delayed, while more than 1,000 were canceled.
Airlines rolled out weather waivers for flyers booked on Saturday and Sunday flights, though none extended into Monday.
The weekend flight woes that hit Chicago and Milwaukee rippled out to flights across the region — and country — though dozens of airports across the Midwest suffered significant disruptions.
At Eastern Iowa Airport (CID) near Cedar Rapids, only seven departures — roughly 16% of the day's schedule — and no arrivals had been canceled. That marked a major improvement from Saturday, when 60% of the schedule was canceled.
Among other airports that saw significant winter-weather disruptions since Saturday were:
- St. Louis Lambert International Airport (STL)
- Eppley Airfield (OMA) in Omaha
- Des Moines International Airport (DSM) in Iowa
- Eastern Iowa Airport near Cedar Rapids, Iowa (CID)
- Green Bay Austin Straubel International Airport (GRB)
- Dane County Regional Airport in Madison, Wisconsin (MSN)
- Cherry Capital Airport in Traverse City, Michigan (TVC)
- Quad Cities International Airport near Davenport, Iowa (MLI)
- South Bend International Airport in South Bend, Indiana (SBN)
- Fort Wayne International Airport in Indiana (FWA)
- General Wayne A. Downing Peoria International Airport in Illinois (PIA)
- Waterloo Regional Airport in Iowa (ALO)
While schedules were returning to normal Monday, flyers should be on alert for the remainder of the week as more wintry weather is forecast to move across the Midwest and Northeast.
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