As of 7 a.m. ET Monday, over 1,800 flights in and out of the United States were canceled due to a significant weather system affecting air travel across various regions, according to FlightAware.
Additionally, there were more than 1,200 reported delays for U.S. flights, highlighting the scale of the disruption.
This all happened right during the spring break travel season, one of the busiest times of year, leaving many travelers in a scramble for alternatives.
The majority of cancellations occurred at New York-area airports, with LaGuardia seeing 149 flights canceled, John F. Kennedy International Airport with 88, Boston Logan International Airport had about 63, and Newark Liberty International Airport faced 27 cancellations, per FlightAware data.
The region is critical since it’s one of the busiest aviation corridors worldwide. Disruptions here can affect the entire national aviation network.
Chicago O’Hare International Airport, another major hub, reported significant cancellations as well, with 133 departures and 202 arrivals grounded, according to the same data.
Many major airlines were hit hard, with Endeavor Airlines leading the cancellations at 278, followed closely by Southwest with 265, Delta with 231, American with 181, Republic with 171, and SkyWest with 156.
Other large U.S. airports, like Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport and Baltimore-Washington International Airport, also reported multiple flight cancellations, indicating the wide-reaching impact of the severe weather.
The disruptions coincided with a strong storm system sweeping across the U.S., bringing blizzard conditions to parts of the Midwest while threatening unusual severe storms along the East Coast.
The FOX Prediction Center noted a Level 4 out of 5 severe weather risk for the East Coast, warning of damaging winds between 70 to 80 mph and possible tornadoes breaking out from the mid-Atlantic to parts of the Carolinas later on Monday.
Meanwhile, regions in the Midwest and Great Lakes are dealing with record snowfall; for instance, Green Bay, Wisconsin registered 14.8 inches in a single day, marking the heaviest snowfall in 137 years, and Spalding, Michigan recorded 26 inches.
FOX Weather later reported that cancellations surged to over 5,000 across the country by Tuesday, as storms continue to wreak havoc on travel plans.
Ground outages are anticipated at major hubs as severe storms edge closer to the Atlantic coast, according to forecasts.
