Nearly 12,000 US Flights Delayed or Canceled Amid Severe Winter Weather

A Southwest Airlines jet arrives at Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix, on Dec. 28, 2022. Matt York/AP Photo

Close to 12,000 flights in the United States were delayed or canceled on Jan. 16 as severe winter weather across the country disrupted flight operations.

2,472 flights within, into, or out of the United States were canceled on Tuesday, according to data from FlightAware. This followed 3,346 cancellations on Monday, which was the highest number of flight cancellations since the Southwest meltdown in 2022.

Southwest Airlines had the most cancellations, with 440 flights affected. United Airlines followed with 360 cancellations, Republic Airways with 298, and American Airlines with 221.

Tuesday also saw 9,346 delayed flights. As such, the total number of delayed or canceled flights for the day came to 11,818. On Wednesday, there were 771 cancellations and 483 delays as of 4:40 a.m. ET.

The flight cancellations and delays over the past few days were triggered by the severe winter weather affecting much of the United States. Extremely low temperatures impacted significant portions of the Midwest, Great Plains, and Rockies on Tuesday, with wind chills in parts of the central United States registering below minus 30 degrees Fahrenheit.

The cold conditions are expected to continue for the week, thus likely impacting air travel for longer. The U.S. National Weather Service (NWS) issued a “winter storm warning” and “winter weather advisory” for major portions of the U.S. Northwest for Wednesday.

In the parts of the Southeast covering Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida, and Georgia, a “storm warning” is in place for the day.

In its forecast for Jan. 17 to Jan. 19, the NWS predicts wind chills plummeting below zero degrees Fahrenheit for much of the Midwest and South on early Wednesday.

“A brief reprieve from the frigid air is expected as the airmass moderates Wednesday, bringing temperatures back closer to winter-time averages. A true warm-up is in store for southern Texas and eastward along the Gulf Coast where highs will return to the 60s and 70s Thursday.”

“Unfortunately, another Arctic Blast is expected to quickly follow this one, with much below average, frigid temperatures beginning to spread southward across the Northern and Central Plains Thursday.”

The Northwest region is forecast to experience “heavy mountain snows,” with the heaviest snow expected to be in the Cascades, Northern Rockies, Wasatch, and portions of the Central Rockies in Colorado.

In the Mid-Atlantic region, “lake-effect snow warnings are in place for totals between 1-3 feet through Thursday night. Another system should bring a renewed round of at least some light snow chances to the Midwest Thursday.”

Staffing Issues

Speaking to CBS News, Henry Harteveldt, president of Atmosphere Research Group, said that current disruptions to flight schedules are so severe that airlines are starting to see staffing thin out.

The severe winter weather is happening in the middle of this month rather than the end. According to federal laws, there is a cap on the number of hours airline staff can work. Usually, there is a greater possibility that employees would max out their hours near the end of a month. This could potentially result in staffing shortages in such situations.

“I am concerned if we see bad weather happen again that this could have a cascading effect and we could see worse problems later in the month,” Mr. Harteveldt said.

In addition to staffing issues, de-icing fluids were also in short supply across airlines. “When you’ve got delays at major airports, everything just gets spread out across the entire aviation network and there’s a waterfall effect,” he said.

Mr. Harteveldt believes that airlines will soon need to decide on future investments required to maintain operational efficiency during severe winter storms.

“Once airlines and airports get through this latest bout of bad weather, they need to really sit down and think about how they prepare for a future where bad winter weather storms may be more frequent, last longer, and potentially have even greater temperature and weather extremes than we have seen.”

Scott Keyes, a travel industry expert, thinks the true test for airlines would be how the firms rebound once they get through this winter phase.

“For now, the cancellations and delays are understandable and forgivable. In the next days, when the weather improves, all eyes will be on airlines to see if they are able to bounce back quickly or if they suffer from more cancellations that are the result of a lack of preparation.”

Boeing 737-9 MAX Grounding

Together with winter weather, the grounding of Boeing 737-9 MAX aircraft by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is also contributing to the flight schedule crisis. The FAA grounded the plane model after two aircraft were involved in incidents this month.

Alaska grounded 65 out of their 231 Boeing 737-9 MAX aircraft. “With the grounding of the 737-9 MAX still in place, we’ve made another difficult decision to cancel additional flights that were scheduled with that aircraft,” the airline said. Alaska Airlines has canceled flights through Wednesday due to the grounding order.

Last week, the FAA said that it intended to keep the Boeing aircraft grounded until “extensive inspection and maintenance is conducted and data from inspections is reviewed.”