Winter storm and severe cold sweeps across US

Air travel trouble is shaping up to be even worse on Friday than it was Thursday.

Airlines have canceled more than 3,100 flights as of 7 a.m. ET, according to the tracking service FlightAware.

That number of cancellations is already surpassing the 2,681 flights canceled on Thursday. Nearly 10,400 flights experienced delays on Thursday, FlightAware said.

As the storm moves east, the impact at major East Coast airports is growing. New York’s LaGuardia Airport is leading the nation with the highest number of departing flights cancellations — one in three flights will not take off, FlightAware data shows.  

The FAA noted early Friday it may have to halt or restrict traffic at airports in the Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Washington areas.  

FlightAware data show more than 100 cancellations at six airports:  LaGuardia, Seattle-Tacoma, Detroit, Boston, and Chicago’s O’Hare and Midway airports.   

The growing cancellations make it harder for passengers racing against the clock and weather to rebook and arrive in time for Christmas. Flights this year were already more crowded than they’ve been previously — even before the storm disrupted travel schedules. 

“What many folks might not have realized is that the number of flights in the sky is actually down more like 15 or 20%,” Scott Keyes of Scott’s Cheap Flights told CNN. “The planes that are actually flying are more full today than they were pre-pandemic. That’s why there’s not as many empty seats to switch onto if you do find your flight gets canceled or delayed.”