Winter storm cancels more than 15,000 US flights as ice, snow batter southeast

ISTANBUL

A powerful winter storm sweeping across the southeastern US has forced more than 15,000 flight cancellations and thousands of delays as snow, ice, and freezing temperatures disrupted air travel, flight tracking data showed Monday.

As of 1000GMT, over 15,000 flights within, into, or out of the US had been canceled, and more than 6,000 were delayed, according to FlightAware.

Since Sunday, the highest number of cancellations was recorded at Texas’ Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, with 828 flights scrapped. It was followed by Charlotte Douglas International Airport in North Carolina with 751, John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) in New York with 728, Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey with 682, and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in Georgia with 680.

Several major airlines were also heavily affected. American Airlines and Delta Air Lines led in cancellations, with more than 4,000 flights canceled combined, while Southwest Airlines and United Airlines reported around 3,000 cancellations in total.

The aviation disruptions came as a sprawling storm system spread sleet, freezing rain and heavy snow from the south to New England. The National Weather Service said wintry precipitation would continue through Monday in many areas, followed by prolonged periods of very low temperatures likely to cause “dangerous travel and infrastructure impacts.”

More than 820,000 customers were without power nationwide, according to poweroutage.us.

President Donald Trump approved emergency declarations for at least a dozen states, while federal emergency teams and supplies were pre-positioned in multiple states, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said in a statement on Sunday.

"The Trump administration has worked around the clock with state and local governments ahead of this winter storm. Response to this storm has been locally executed, state led and federally supported," DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said through US social media company X.