A powerful winter storm sweeping across much of the United States led to widespread flight cancellations and delays on Monday as freezing rain and heavy snowfall disrupted travel and transportation networks, "Reuters" reported.
According to flight tracking site FlightAware, about 3,800 flights had been canceled and more than 1,000 delayed as of early Monday. This follows more than 11,000 flight cancellations on Sunday, with cancellations and delays expected to increase as the day progresses.
The National Weather Service said a low pressure area south of New England was moving east over the Atlantic Ocean, bringing heavy snow to the Northeast and freezing rain to parts of the Mid-Atlantic. Snow is also expected along the Appalachian Mountains, while rain will spread along the Southeast coast as a cold front moves inland.
The hardest-hit airline was American Airlines, with more than 600 flights canceled and about 135 delayed. Republic Airways, JetBlue Airways and Delta Air Lines followed. American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines each fell nearly 1% in premarket trading.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) warned that weather conditions - snow, freezing rain and low visibility - were affecting key air hubs such as Boston and the airspace around New York. Temporary takeoff suspensions and flight delay programs are possible in the afternoon at airports such as LaGuardia, "John F. Kennedy", Philadelphia, Newark and "Washington Dulles" if conditions worsen.
Major airlines have introduced flexible rechecking and travel relief measures to help travelers. The industry has warned that aviation operations are highly interconnected and mass cancellations can leave planes and crews "out of position", making it difficult to quickly restore schedules.
The extreme weather also affected international flights. Dutch carrier KLM said some of its flights to the US were disrupted over the weekend, but expects all services to operate normally on Monday.
The storm also disrupted road traffic. The Federal Emergency Management Agency warned of dangerous driving conditions due to blizzards, high winds and icing. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of customers in several states - from Tennessee to North and South Carolina - were left without power.
According to data from PowerOutage.us, more than 820,000 customers were without power as of early Monday, with Tennessee reporting the most affected.