Winter weather snarls flights Tuesday with thousands of cancellations
Thousands of flights across the U.S. were canceled or delayed Tuesday morning as a winter storm swept across the nation for the second day in a row.
More than 2,400 flights to, from and within the U.S. had been canceled by 10:40 p.m. EST, and nearly 9,000 more delayed, according to data from FlightAware.
The major disruption comes as much of the country saw its first significant snowfall in two years, and freezing temperatures swept across much of the middle and eastern portions of the continent.
Temperatures reached as low as the teens in Texas, while a band of snow moved into the Northeast, covering the Interstate 95 corridor. More than 3,300 U.S. flights were scrapped Monday.
On Tuesday morning, Southwest led the cancellations with 440 (11% of its schedule) and a whopping 1,416 delays (38%). The Dallas-based carrier, which also led cancellations Monday, appeared to struggle as the weather system swept through several of its key focus cities all at once, including Dallas, Houston, Chicago, Denver and Baltimore.
United Airlines was not far behind, with 359 mainline cancellations (14%) and 1,033 delays (42%).
On the other end of the scale, Delta Air Lines had just 46 mainline cancellations (1%) Tuesday, though it did delay nearly 1,100 flights (37%). Two regional airlines that operate for Delta and others — Republic Airways and SkyWest Airlines — also showed significant disruptions. Republic had 296 canceled flights (31%) and 391delays (41%), while SkyWest had 197 cancellations (10%) and 602 delays (30%).
The storm's sheer breadth made the disruptions worse, with flights snarling across much of the country.
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Washington, D.C.'s Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) led the number of canceled departures, with 162 flights scrubbed, or 36% of its departures for the day, and another 188 delayed (42%). New York's LaGuardia Airport (LGA) followed with 160 cancellations (29%) and 289 delays (53%).
Other severely affected airports included Chicago's O'Hare International Airport (ORD) — with 102 outbound cancellations (10%) and 403 delays (41%) — and with Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH), which had 84 canceled departing flights (14%) and 266 delays (45%). IAH also struggled with arriving flights, with 133 canceled (21%) and 205 delayed (33%).
The cancellations were complicated by the ongoing grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX 9, which makes up a significant part of United's and Alaska Airlines' fleets. (Alaska had 96 cancellations, 16% of its schedule, and 38 delays Tuesday morning.)
The grounding comes after a door plug fell from an Alaska Airlines jet midflight Jan. 5. The FAA is investigating and has not given a timeline for the fleet's return to service.
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