LOS ANGELES — With much of the United States still reeling from a nearly week-long winter storm, flight cancellations and delays and other transportation issues continued to pile up over Christmas.
More than 2,800 flights to, from, and the US had already been canceled by 10:00 p.m. ET Sunday, according to flight-tracking website FlightAware.
And the delays of flights that can still take off amounted to approximately 6,700. Christmas is traditionally a bright day for passenger flights.
Demonstrating the storm’s enormity and widespread impact, it was the airport in the Deep South and the second in the West that was hardest hit on Christmas Day.
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL) — the world’s busiest passenger airport — had the second-highest number of cancellations and delays as of 10 p.m. Sunday.
#1 was over 1,000 miles away in the Rockies with Denver International. And even further west, Harry Reid International (LAS) in Las Vegas has the third highest number of cancellations.
Denver International kept a sense of humor during the tense event, posting a tweet of what appeared to be an airport worker playing the “Jingle Bells” violin.
However, the effects of the storm are subsiding in some parts of the West. The temperature at 8:00 PM MT at Denver International was still above freezing at 38F (3C).
In hard-hit western New York, things were still too rough for humor.
Buffalo Niagara International Airport (BUF) tweeted that it would be fully closed until 11 a.m. Tuesday, December 27 – Extension of closure, which was originally scheduled to end at 11 a.m. Monday.
The temperature at BUF at 10pm ET was 20F (-7C) with winds of 24 mph, according to the National Weather Service.
A tough week for flying
The arrival of the massive storm was ill-timed for travelers, who began to return Christmas week flights to pre-pandemic levels.
According to FlightAware, 3,487 flights were canceled on Christmas Eve. Friday was the worst day with 5,934 cancellations, while almost 2,700 were canceled on Thursday.
This mega blast of wintry weather in the eastern two-thirds of the country is forecast to slowly taper off by the last week of the year. As of 5:30 p.m. ET on Monday, there were more than 260 warning cancellations.
Bus and rail service
On Sunday morning, Greyhound released information about the latest bus disruptions, which were centered around routes to and from Buffalo and Syracuse in New York. If you ride a Greyhound bus, you can click here for the latest information about your bus.
Amtrak’s latest warning was issued Friday. At the time, it said Amtrak had made and canceled several flights between today and Sunday, December 25, due to severe weather.
The rail company said affected customers should be able to board trains departing at the same time or on another day. You can click here to get the latest Amtrak service delay alerts or @AmtrakAlerts on Twitter. For Northeast alerts, go to @AmtrakNECAlerts.
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