This year’s Thanksgiving air travel has finally hit a snag.
Airlines canceled nearly 2,200 flights Saturday and Sunday, implementing weather waivers as a powerful storm battered the upper Midwest and Great Lakes. The system was forecast to bring up to a foot of snow or more to much of the region, and airlines are now preemptively canceling flights through Sunday.
The disturbance, which comes after a quiet pre-Thanksgiving period, has upended the plans of thousands of travelers during the second half of what is expected to be one of the busiest Thanksgiving Days ever for air travel.
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Airlines had canceled 1,898 flights on Saturday and delayed another 7,596 as of 11:10 p.m. according to flight tracking service FlightAware. By Sunday, another 300 flights had already been cancelled.
Hundreds of them were preemptively canceled Friday night in anticipation of the storm, and about 80 flights were already grounded for Sunday.
By Saturday, the major airports hardest hit were Chicago and Milwaukee, although major cancellations were reported at several airports in Iowa, Nebraska and Missouri.
At Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD), more than 1,100 departures and arrivals combined were canceled, more than 40% of Saturday’s total schedule. About 240 (about 35% of the day’s schedule) were canceled citywide at Chicago Midway Airport (MDW). To the north, about a third of Saturday’s flights had been canceled at Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport (MKE).
At Eastern Iowa Airport (CID), near Cedar Rapids, more than half of the day’s schedule was canceled. In Madison, Wisconsin, about a quarter of flights had been canceled at Dane County Regional Airport (MSN). It was a similar story at Des Moines International Airport (DSM) in Iowa, where cancellations also exceeded 30%.
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Other airports that suffered major disruptions due to winter weather on Saturday included:
- St. Louis Lambert International Airport (STL)
- Omaha Eppley Airfield (OMA) in Nebraska
- Green Bay Austin Straubel International Airport (GRB)
- Cherry Capital Airport in Traverse City, Michigan (TVC)
- Quad Cities International Airport near Davenport, Iowa (MLI)
- South Bend International Airport in South Bend, Indiana (SBN)
- Fort Wayne International Airport in Indiana (FWA)
- General Wayne A. Downing Peoria International Airport in Illinois (PIA)
- Waterloo Regional Airport in Iowa (ALO)
By Sunday, the system was expected to move east and away from most major air hubs, although road travel could be an issue in parts of Pennsylvania and upstate New York.
Additionally, residual flight cancellations could persist in the Midwest and Great Lakes as airlines restart operations there.
Most major airlines had implemented flexible rebooking policies for passengers affected by the storm and scheduled to fly through the region.
STORM WAIVERS: American | Delta | Border | Southwest | country of the sun | United
Travelers scheduled to fly on Saturday or Sunday should check their flight status in advance before heading to the airport.
Please check back for updates.
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