Thousands of flights canceled as 18 states declare winter emergencies
An American Airlines airplane taxis across the runway at the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, which has seen the most flights canceled amid a winter storm on Saturday. Photo by Jerome Myron/EPA
Jan. 24 (UPI) — Thousands of flights have been canceled or delayed from Texas through the Northeast as 18 states declared emergencies amid a massive winter storm on Saturday.
Politico reported nearly 12,000 flights have been canceled through the weekend across the United States, but FlightAware showed 3,876 cancellations and 2,783 delays of flights within, into or out of the country on Saturday.
Dallas is the most affected, by far, among locales with 717 outgoing flights canceled and 91 delayed at the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. Those account for 81% and 10% of outgoing flights, respectively, affected at the airport.
The DFW airport also has 683 incoming flights that were affected, 77% of which were canceled while 64, or 7%, were delayed on Saturday.
Nearby Dallas Love Field has 93 outgoing flights canceled and 13 delayed, accounting for 62% and 8% of flights affected, respectively.
Tennessee’s Nashville International Airport has 59% of its outgoing flights, 148, canceled and 11%, 26 delayed, while 72% of its incoming flights, 179, are canceled and only 2% delayed, which affects seven flights.
American Airlines is the most-affected air carrier, with a total of 976 flights canceled and 360 delayed at affected airports across the country.
The winter storm is moving eastward from the Rocky Mountains and into South, Central and Northeast starting Saturday and continuing into Monday. The storm has already triggered countless numbers of school closures on Monday.
The storm system is accompanied by freezing rain in southern states and heavy snowfall amounts in the north and central states.
Little Rock, Ark., reported 8 inches of snowfall on Saturday afternoon, with more coming, and Washington, D.C., is expected to get a combination of snow and freezing rain through Sunday night, according to The Washington Post.
The storm system is expected dissipate by Monday, but frigid temperatures will remain for about a week afterward.
At least 18 states have declared a state of emergency, and more than 180 million people are expected to be affected by the storm system that formed on Friday afternoon and is moving to the east.
Some locales are predicted to see up to 2 inches of snowfall per hour during peak storm activity as the system moves across the Central United States on Saturday and eastern states on Sunday.
