This holiday season, a "once in a generation" storm with subzero temperatures, icy winds, and copious amounts of snow is affecting travel plans for millions of Americans.
Airlines expect this holiday travel season to be their busiest since the pandemic started, but the storm is now posing a threat to the travel plans of tens of thousands of passengers.
On Thursday, cancellations and delays are at an all-time high as airports and airlines strive to deal with the inclement weather.
3,716 flights had been delayed as of 1 p.m. on Thursday, and 1,835 had been canceled, according to FlightAware, a website that analyses flight information.
Denver International Airport (DEN) and Chicago's O'Hare International Airport (ORD) had the greatest flight cancellations and delays, however problems accumulated at airports throughout a sizable portion of the United States.
U.S. airlines had already reduced their itineraries in advance of the storm, canceling close to 1,000 flights on Friday.
The storm, which the National Weather Service described as an "arctic blast of dangerous and life-threatening cold," had already been warned against by the service, which specifically recommended motorists change their plans.
The Great Plains were already impacted by the storm on Thursday morning, and it is predicted that between Thursday and Friday it will advance toward the Midwest, South, and East Coast.
Winter storm warnings are in effect for around 100 million Americans.
Numerous significant airlines, such as Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, JetBlue, Spirit Airlines, and Southwest Airlines, have been providing waivers that, in general, permit customers to make one change to their itineraries without having to pay change fees or have their fares recalculated.
Airlines are making an effort to allow passengers to rebook flights to fly before or after the storm, while the dates and airports covered by the waivers vary by carrier.
The main U.S. airlines, including American, Delta, and United, are represented by the trade association Airlines for America, which declared before the storm that it was ready to manage travel between Christmas and New Year's.
Senior vice president for policy at A4A Sharon Pinkerton maintained that adding more personnel and modifying timetables had mostly resolved the operational problems that had dogged airlines for the previous year.
Additionally, the Transportation Security Administration declared that it was ready for an increase in holiday travel.
TSA chief David Pekoske stated that the agency would work to keep wait times at security checkpoints in airports around the nation to 30 minutes or less.
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