Nearly 15,000 U.S. flights have been canceled due to the winter storm - and counting

MW Nearly 15,000 U.S. flights have been canceled due to the winter storm - and counting

By Claudia Assis

American and Southwest flights going in and out of Dallas-Fort Worth were among the most affected Saturday

Dallas Fort Worth International Airport has been among the air-travel hubs most affected by this weekend's winter storm.

Airlines have canceled nearly 15,000 flights through Monday due to a winter storm expected to wallop two-thirds of the U.S. over the weekend - with flights into and out of the Dallas-Fort Worth area in Texas among the most affected so far.

The widespread air-travel disruptions come amid forecasts for heavy snow and frigid temperatures in the Northeast and Midwest, as well as icy conditions and gusty winds across the southern Great Plains and Southeast, the National Weather Service said.

Nearly 700 flights on Friday, more than 3,800 flights on Saturday, over 8,500 flights on Sunday and almost 1,500 flights on Monday had been canceled as of Saturday afternoon, according to FlightAware.

Saturday's cancellations most significantly affected flights in and out of Dallas Fort Worth International Airport, while the heaviest of Sunday's cancellations were at Charlotte Douglas International Airport in North Carolina and Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.

Dallas Forth Worth and Charlotte Douglas are the two largest hubs for Fort Worth-based American Airlines $(AAL)$, while Hartsfield-Jackson is Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines' $(DAL)$ top hub. Cancellations also hit Dallas Love Field, home to Southwest Airlines' $(LUV)$ corporate headquarters. American and Southwest were feeling the brunt of Saturday's disruptions, with nearly 1,000 and 600 cancellations, respectively.

Sunday cancellations were most heavily hitting American (over 1,300 flights), Delta (nearly 1,100 flights) and Southwest (nearly 1,000 flights), at last check, with the most affected airports being Charlotte Douglas and Hartsfield-Jackson. Major airports in the New York City, Washington, D.C., and Boston areas were also seeing heavy Sunday cancellations.

On an average day, about 1% of roughly 50,000 daily U.S. flights are canceled and some 20% are delayed. On Jan. 22, 2025, at the peak of a historic snowstorm that blanketed the Southeast, some 1,700 flights were canceled.

The single worst day for flight cancellations in recent years was July 19, 2024, which saw 3,600 cancellations when a faulty software update involving cybersecurity company CrowdStrike Holdings (CRWD) rattled computers running Windows $(MSFT)$ and the global information-technology system with the "blue screen of death," affecting airlines, airport operations and other businesses.

For the current storm, U.S. airlines have issued waivers to ticket holders, with the details of what is covered varying from airline to airline.

Once a flight is canceled, there's very little slack in the system for rebookings, as airlines work to fly planes as close to capacity as possible. That makes for slow rebooking and recovery from any flight cancellations.

The storm is expected to bring heavy snow, ice and bitter cold to large swaths of the country. It is shaping up to be particularly treacherous, as it is expected to hit areas not used to severe winter weather.

U.S. airline stocks finished in the red Friday, a mixed day broadly for the U.S. equity market. The U.S. Global Jets exchange-traded fund JETS ended 1.1% lower on the day.

-Claudia Assis

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January 24, 2026 16:25 ET (21:25 GMT)

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