As we enter the 5:00 pm ET hour, nearly 5,000 flights within, into, or out of the United States have been cancelled so far today alone thanks to freakishly cold winter weather.
Nearly 5,000 Flights Cancelled Today In USA Due To Winter Weather
4,979 flights have been cancelled so far today in the USA, with another 7,600 delayed…and that list continues to grow by the minute. The so-called “bomb cyclone” weather pattern has dropped wind, snow, and blizzard-like conditions across much of the United States.
Per FlightAware, cancellations and delays in the USA and Canada include:
- Southwest Airlines – 951 cancellations (23% of schedule), 1747 delays (42% of schedule)
- SkyWest – 448 cancellations (24%), 403 delays (21%)
- Alaska Airlines – 432 cancellations (55%), 104 delays (13%)
- American Airlines – 366 cancellations (11%), 1051 delays (31%)
- Republic – 342 cancellations (36%), 201 delays (21%)
- Delta Air Lines – 307 cancellations (10%), 941 delays (32%)
- United Airlines – 301 cancellations (11%), 788 delays (31%)
- Endeavor Air – 298 cancellations (39%), 189 delays (25%)
- Air Canada Jazz – 260 cancellations (53%), 123 delays (25%)
- WestJet – 196 cancellations (56%), 69 delays (19%)
- Allegiant Air – 182 cancellations (40%), 76 delays (17%)
- Envoy Air – 170 cancellations (23%), 220 delays (30%)
- Cape Air – 139 cancellations (46%), 22 delays (7%)
- PSA Airlines – 122 cancellations (24%), 137 delays (27%)
- Frontier Airlines – 121 cancellations (23%), 133 delays (25%)
- Horizon – 110 cancellations (50%), 53 delays (24%)
- JetBlue – 88 cancellations (8%), 355 delays (34%)
- Air Canada – 85 cancellations (17%), 211 delays (43%)
- Porter – 85 cancellations (48%), 44 delays (25%)
- Spirit Airlines – 78 cancellations (9%), 258 delays (32%)
If your flight is delayed or cancelled, do not panic…roll with it. I’ve been watching availability come and go rapidly on many flights today (we’ve had several Award Expert clients impacted by storms). If you really need to get somewhere, consider checking that your desired flight is operating, even if there are no seats for sale, and showing up at the airport anyway to try to get on it. There will be all sorts of no-shows, late arrivals, and misconnects in weather like this. The best option is to just stay home, if at all possible.
CONCLUSION
It has been a rough day for air travel and tomorrow will only be marginally better. Meanwhile, here in Southern California I’m sitting on my patio in shorts and a t-shirt. It’s 74ºF (23ºC) outside and a very beautiful day. Tomorrow and Christmas will be even warmer. For the rest of you out there, hang tough and enjoy the white Christmas.
AA 11%, DL 10%, UA 11%, Allegiant 40%
Just another reason to stick with the big 3. While areas operating in has something to do with these numbers, they also have more options to get you where you need to go.
Meanwhile Allegiant just cancels, refunds your $50 and tells you Good Luck. And I understand we don’t have many Allegiant customers on here but sadly people who only look at the fare will now miss out on their Christmas plans.
Allegiant’s operations are much more heavily centered in areas affected by the storm. Not to mention that the big three all have international operations that are largely unaffected. 40% is still a lot but the big three are more operationally spread out so their systems aren’t as proportionally impacted.
And to have status. Situations like this make 1K worth it. IAD is a zoo this morning.
-15F, -40F windchill, a ton of snow and now blizzard conditions with winds at 50mph at MSP. At least it a white Christmas is guaranteed.
Working on a 6+ hour delay at LAX. Glad that the new UC here is well-equipped for spending time here. Thinking back to the windowless UC that existed while T7 had construction in the mid-2010s would have been unbearable.
Where are you off to?