New year brings more cancelled flights for air travellers

For air travellers, the new year picked up where the old one left off – with lots of frustration.

By midmorning Saturday on the East Coast, more than 2,300 US flights had been cancelled, according to tracking service FlightAware.

That is the highest single-day toll yet since just before Christmas, when airlines began blaming staffing shortages on increasing Covid-19 infections among crews.

More than 12,000 US flights have been cancelled since December 24.

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Saturday's disruptions weren't just due to the virus, however.

Wintry weather made Chicago the worst place in the country for travellers, with 800 flights scrubbed at O'Hare Airport and more than 250 at Midway Airport.

Forecasts called for nine inches of snow. Denver, Detroit, and Newark, New Jersey, were hit with at least 100 cancellations each.

Southwest Airlines, which has major operations at Chicago Midway and Denver, cancelled more than 450 flights nationwide, or 13 per cent of its schedule, by midmorning.

American, Delta, United, and JetBlue scrubbed more than 100 flights apiece.

SkyWest, a regional carrier that operates flights under the names American Eagle, Delta Connection, and United Express, grounded more than 400 flights, or 21 per cent of its schedule.

Airlines say they are taking steps to reduce cancellations.

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United is offering to pay pilots triple or more of their usual wages for picking up open flights through mid-January. Southwest and others have also raised premium pay for some workers.

When winter weather hit the Pacific Northwest earlier this week, Alaska Airlines urged customers to delay any “non-essential” trips that were planned through this weekend.

With full flights over the New Year's holiday, the airline said it wasn't sure it could rebook stranded passengers for at least three days.

Travellers who stuck to the roads instead of the skies faced challenges, too.

Transportation officials in the Midwest warned motorists that a mix of rain and snow could make roads slippery and reduce visibility, leading to hazardous driving conditions.

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