So far, 37.5% of U.S. departing flights have been cancelled today, according to data from aviation analytics company Cirium. While over 9,000 flights in total have been cancelled, and that number will grow, it’s not actually a record for the past 20 years. In the early day of the pandemic, on March 30, 2020, 12,143 flights were cancelled which was 53% of the published schedule.
Already 8% of Monday flights have been cancelled, but that will grow significantly.
Over 90% of flights at Washington’s National airport were cancelled, and a similar percentage at Washington Dulles. 83% of the schedule was canned at each of New York JFK, LaGuardia, and Newark. Of course these numbers will rise with about 8 hours left in the day on the East Coast at the time cancel numbers were pulled. Charlotte was also 83% cancelled. Philadelphia was worst-hit so far amongst major hubs with 93% cancelled.
Overall, here’s what Cirium data shows for how each airline has been affected today:
| Airline | Flights | # Cancelled | % Cancelled | |||
| JetBlue | 654 | 498 | 76.15% | |||
| American | 5,573 | 3,201 | 57.44% | |||
| Delta | 4,601 | 2,183 | 47.45% | |||
| United | 4,240 | 1,731 | 40.83% | |||
| Frontier | 596 | 192 | 32.21% | |||
| Allegiant | 416 | 116 | 27.88% | |||
| Spirit | 448 | 78 | 17.41% | |||
| Alaska | 1,119 | 88 | 7.86% | |||
| Southwest | 3,762 | 270 | 7.18% |
Unsurprisingly, airlines with significant operations in the Northeast – JetBlue has its strongest concentrations in New York and Boston – fared worst. And JetBlue has already cancelled over 30% of its flights for Monday.
American is heavy in New York and D.C., and Charlotte and Dallas fared poorly as well. United was affected at its Washington Dulles and Newark hubs. And, of course, the effect of cancellations reverberate across an airline’s network (since planes and crew often fly through the system).
Here in Austin we got an overnight downpour with temperatures below freezing all day today – and likely only to be above freezing for a few hours tomorrow. So roads are largely impassable and schools are cancelled even here in Central Texas.
We are seeing a lot more sleet mixing in with the freezing rain, including now thunder sleet in the Austin metro area! pic.twitter.com/g2YNEVcy6H
— NWS Austin/San Antonio (@NWSSanAntonio) January 25, 2026
I’m supposed to fly tomorrow morning but I don’t expect to be able to make it to the airport… even if somehow things are in better shape tomorrow than today in the Northeast where I’m headed. So I have to decide whether to try to push to a late flight tomorrow evening (which entails its own operational risks) or try to fly out Tuesday (leaving only a few things left on my planned agenda). And I wouldn’t be looking to 6 degree overnight temperatures in any case!
It all depended on where the freezing line landed.
BNA and MEM cxld about 75% of their flights today while DFW was at 60% after the same percentage of cxls yesterday.
ATL was about 50% today after less than 15% while CLT was double that amount yesterday and 80% today – also influenced by each airport’s ability to handle traffic delays including deicing.
The Midwest and Northeast are getting snow which is far preferable to what the south got.
alot of trips just won’t happen. Surely you can reschedule the reason for your trip, Gary. If anyone will show up.
@Tim Dunn — Thankfully it’s been mostly snow in NYC, because we hate ICE… *cough*
Best of luck to all affected. I’m glad to be nowhere near this.
@This comes to mind — Columbus, Ohio, got like 7”… wait, did you change your homeport on us?!
1990 says:
@Tim Dunn — Thankfully it’s been mostly snow in NYC, because we hate ICE… *cough*
Drum roll, accompanying your prose. Excellent!
Here in Malta, we just tell the bartender to hold the ICE.
@Tim Dunn: You’ve taken some heat in the past from everyone about how DL recovered (or didn’t) from the last big snow event earlier this year. Maybe that WAS an anomaly? Or maybe DL has better learned from that event, and improved things?
It’s hard to argue this storm didn’t equally affect AA/DL/SW/UA equally. Let’s take a look at the numbers/percentage of cancelled flights, mainline carriers only, for the “Big 4”, ranked by highest raw number of flights (data from flightaware) to see how each is managing their respective response and recoveries after this last storm.
Friday, Jan 23rd:
AA 104/3%
SW 103/3%
DL 41/1%
UA 22/<1%
Sat, Jan 24th:
AA 1068/35%
SW 589/19%
DL 244/8%
UA 185/7%
Sun, Jan 25th:
AA 1906/58%
DL 1484/45%
SW 1347/34%
UA 1019/36%
Mon, Jan 26th (as of 3pm EST)
AA 977/30%
DL 433/13%
SW 340/10%
UA 320/11%
Mon, Jan 26th (as of 3pm EST)
AA 977/30%
DL 433/13%
SW 340/10%
UA 320/11%
Mon, Jan 26th (as of 3pm EST)
AA 977/30%
DL 433/13%
SW 340/10%
UA 320/11%
Tues, Jan 27th
AA 16/<1%
DL 13/<1%
UA 8/<1%
SW 6/<1%
(IMO – this data is most telling… airlines should be able to assign and position crews on flights TODAY to operate flights TOMORROW… failing to do so can mean a poorer recovery response as I see it, so high proactive cancellations at this point would be a sign of a poor recovery response)
All four seem to have it figured out. Passengers understand disruptions when it's dumping snow on an airport, but are less forgiving when an airline is still in chaos several days after the storm has passed. Based on flightaware's data, overall – I'd say all four of the major airlines have done a good job of preparing for, handling, and recovering their operations from the weather.
AA is now up to 360 cancellations for tomorrow – Tuesday – which amounts to 12% of its schedule.
The regional airlines all are below AA and then DL has 29, yes 29, mainline cancellations tomorrow.
Tuesday will be the 5th day after weather hit N. Texas and AA can’t seem to get its operation running reliably.
no, all airlines have not figured it out