Over 2,300 Flights Canceled as Winter Storm Hits Northeast

A new winter storm on Friday led to hundreds of flight cancellations in the United States.

Airlines continued to struggle to deal with inclement temperature. Cancellations and delays have plagued Southwest Airways and other airways in latest months, with staffing issues cited as a major reason.

Southwest canceled above 500 flights on Friday and delayed 200 others, in accordance to tracker Flight Informed.

United Airlines canceled or delayed around 300 flights and American Airways, Delta Airways, and JetBlue canceled or delayed in excess of 200 every.

A Southwest spokesman told The Epoch Times in an e-mail that the cancellations were section of flight adjustments manufactured “in reaction to disruptions created by new winter season storms, which impacted numerous of our major bases of operations during the earlier 7 days, and ongoing staffing problems.”

To assistance rectify the situation, Southwest is supplying further pay back to employees by means of Jan. 25. Workforce will get up to double their common spend for performing additional shifts.

A United spokesperson pinned the problems on the spike in COVID-19 cases driven by the Omicron variant of the CCP (Chinese Communist Bash) virus, which will cause COVID-19.

“As a end result, we’ve unfortunately had to terminate some flights and have been functioning to notify impacted prospects up to a week in advance of them coming to the airport. We’re sorry for the disruption and are operating difficult to rebook as a lot of persons as achievable and get them on their way,” the spokesperson stated in an e-mail.

A JetBlue spokesman instructed The Epoch Times by using electronic mail that the greater part of cancellations Friday were being owing to “dangerous weather,” notably in the northeast.

Most of the flights that had been canceled had been slated to fly into or out of airports in the northeast, such as LaGuardia Airport in New York and Boston Logan Worldwide in Massachusetts, in accordance to FlightAware.

The storm, which hit right away, left up to a foot of snow in the northeast, which includes in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Connecticut.

In accordance to the Countrywide Weather Services, chilly and blustery ailments have been forecast to stay in area by means of Friday evening throughout the Good…