More than 6,000 flights canceled so far this week
By Chris Boyette, CNN
So far this week, more than 6,000 flights have been canceled within, into or out of the United States as icy weather has hit large swaths of the country.
By Thursday afternoon, nearly 6,300 flight cancellations had been logged on flight tracking site FlightAware since Monday, including more than 750 Thursday cancellations.
Operations have been hardest hit at three Texas airports: Dallas-Fort Worth International (DFW), Dallas Love Field (DAL) and Austin Bergstrom International (AUS).
More than half of the week’s flight cancellations so far — more than 3,200 — have been to or from DFW, including more than 500 on Thursday.
The hardest-hit airlines are also based in Texas, namely American (whose headquarters is near DFW) and Southwest (whose home base is in Dallas).
American’s operations saw the most disruption on Thursday, with more than 400 flight cancellations, or about 13% of its schedule. Southwest had far fewer cancellations on Thursday — about 70 flights, or 1% of its schedule.
Southwest Airlines issued a winter weather waiver across a dozen airports in Texas, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Arkansas and Kentucky. The waiver applies to affected travel between January 30 to February 2.
American Airlines’ winter weather waiver includes nearly 20 airports for travel from January 29 to February 3.
DFW Airport said on Twitter Wednesday that it “continues to mitigate the impacts of the current winter weather in the area.”
Travelers are advised to check with their airlines on flight status before going to the airport.
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CNN’s Marnie Hunter and Lilit Marcus contributed to this report. Top image: Canceled Southwest flights are displayed at Dallas Love Field Airport in Dallas on Monday, Jan. 30, 2023. (Lola Gomez/The Dallas Morning News via AP)
