Christmas Travelers Grounded as Winter Storm Causes Mass Flight Cancellations

Flying home for Christmas? Prepare to be disappointed. Hundreds of flights were grounded early Thursday morning as an arctic blast delivered freezing temperatures, gusty winds, ice, and heavy snow across vast parts of the country.

The chaos for Christmas fliers has been delivered by what the National Weather Service is calling a “once in a generation type event” threatening to cripple travel on the busiest travel days of the year.

Thursday and Friday are the season’s most crowded travel days, with over three million travelers slated to depart from U.S airports each day, according to the travel app Hopper.

Forbes reports some 1,260 departures were dropped on Thursday and another 700 nixed ahead of Friday, according to data from FlightAware, an app that provides real-time, historical, and predictive flight tracking data.

Southwest Airlines alone said it has canceled 500 of its 4,000 scheduled flights on Thursday through Friday. The company said it wanted to maintain safe operations for both passengers and crew.

Cancellations are expected to climb over the coming days leading up to and including Christmas Day itself, as the weather event envelops the country, AP reports.

The National Weather Service has issued an alert for a “a multitude of weather hazards through early this weekend, as heavy snowfall, strong winds, and dangerously cold temperatures span from the northern Great Basin through the Plains, Upper Midwest, Great Lakes, and the northern/central Appalachians.”

The Midwest and Central Plains will see the brunt of this storm, Forbes reports, with heavy snowfall and high winds will result in “near-zero visibility and considerable blowing and drifting of snow. This will lead to dangerous, to at times impossible, land and air travel leading up to the holiday weekend.”

Airports in the Midwest, including the travel hub of Chicago, will likely face shutdowns as the blizzard comes through later in the week.

As of late Wednesday, Amtrak had canceled train service on around 30 routes, some through Dec. 25. Greyhound canceled bus service on 25 routes for Wednesday and Thursday, including service from Las Vegas to Denver, Denver to St. Louis and Chicago to Minneapolis, Memphis and Nashville, AP sets out.

Earlier this month, AAA estimated that nearly 113 million people would travel 50 miles from home or more between Dec. 23 and Jan. 2. That’s four percent higher than last year, although still short of the record 119 million in 2019.

Most planned to travel by car. About six percent will travel by air, AAA said.

Either way, many travelers will find themselves hastily changing their itineraries – or staying home and not traveling at all.

AP contributed to this story

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