Airlines canceled more than 4,100 flights on Friday, upending Christmas travel across the US for the second consecutive day.
The most cancellations are in Seattle, where runways were closed on Friday due to icy conditions. The next highest numbers of cancellations were seen at Chicago O’Hare, New York LaGuardia and Detroit.
In additions, more than half of departures were canceled at Chicago Midway and two-thirds of departing flights were called off at the Cleveland and Buffalo airports.
Snow and ice are an obvious factor in many cancellations, but severe winds and the wind chill are a problem, too, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said on CNN Friday.
“It’s really about that that frigid temperature that you’re seeing,” Buttigieg said. “That limits the ability of the ground crews to operate. They make it look easy. You see that they’ve got a lot of winter weather gear, but there’s still only so long that these workers can be on the ground servicing these aircraft before its a safety issue and they need to get back inside.”
Planes at multiple airports require de-icing before departing, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
Among Thursday, Friday, and advance cancellations for Saturday, 7,000 pre-Christmas flights have already been canceled nationwide.
