Winter storm: US airlines cancel over 1,000 flights

Over 1,000 flights were reportedly cancelled in the United States on Monday, with more scheduled to be cancelled Tuesday.

The cancellations have been attributed to a severe winter storm.

According to a flight-tracking service, FlightAware, a total of 1,019 flights were cancelled as of 6:00 pm ET on Monday. About 4,100 flights were delayed.

Southwest Airlines saw the most cancellations, scrapping about 12 per cent of its schedule — around 483 flights.

For Tuesday, 797 flights are scheduled to be cancelled into or out of the United States.

The National Weather Service had said Monday morning that a “prolonged and potentially significant icing event” would affect a large portion of the United States, from the southern plains to the Tennessee Valley, according to its website.

While the Department of Transportation requires airlines to issue refunds to travellers whose flights are cancelled, affected airlines have issued waivers as the winter weather rolled in, according to a report by USA Today. A waiver allows customers to change their itinerary with no fare differences if they remain in the same cabin as originally booked.

Southwest Airlines earlier this month faced a backlash from the US government for cancelling 16,700 flights over the holidays owing to bad weather and outdated technology.

The fresh cancellations are coming a few weeks after the US aviation sector recovered from a nationwide ground stop imposed by the Federal Aviation Administration over a technical issue.