International
US airlines cancel thousands of flights during massive winter storm─── 16:13 Fri, 23 Dec 2022
Airlines cancelled more than 6000 flights from Wednesday through Friday, days before Christmas, while high winds, bitter cold and snow were slowing airline operations this week.
Carriers scrubbed more than 6000 US flights from Wednesday through Friday, according to tracking site FlightAware. That period includes what airlines expect to be the busiest travel times before Christmas Day.
CNBC reports that more than 21000 US flights were delayed from Wednesday through Friday.
Airlines warned that the snow, ice, high winds and cold temperatures could affect travel from Seattle to Boston to North Carolina. Wednesday’s cancellations accounted for about 2% of US airlines’ schedules, while about 30% of flights were delayed by an average of 47 minutes, FlightAware data showed.
Disruptions worsened throughout Thursday. The weather could hurt what airlines expect to be busy travel days to cap a rocky year. United Airlines said it expects year-end holidays to be busier than Thanksgiving with 440 000 passengers a day on average.
The carrier projected that 2 January 2023 would be the busiest day since the Covid pandemic started.
