Thousands of flights around the country were delayed or canceled on Saturday because of severe weather, disrupting travel for many returning home after the holidays.
More than 7,000 flights in, into or out of the United States were delayed and more than 200 others were canceled as of Saturday afternoon, according to data from FlightAware.
The delays were not as extensive as the ones on Thursday or Friday, and many passengers on Saturday said their flights were still on schedule. But for others, the delays meant missed connections and several headaches.
As of Saturday afternoon, 45 percent of the flights originating from Dallas Fort Worth International Airport and 46 percent from George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston were delayed, according to FlightAware. About a third of the flights were delayed at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta. At New York’s Kennedy International Airport, the Federal Aviation Administration reported an average delay of more than two hours.
Inclement weather, or the threat of it, was affecting several different regions in the United States. In the West, large bands of moisture in the sky led to heavy rain and snow warnings in some areas. In the South, severe storms bringing the risk of tornadoes were expected over the weekend, and several tornadoes were already reported in the Houston area on Saturday. A storm system moving toward the Northeast also threatened to bring rain and snow.
Travel out of Texas was particularly challenging. At the Dallas Fort Worth airport, one of the country’s busiest and the largest hub for American Airlines, the scheduling problems continued from earlier this week, when bad weather and a technical glitch briefly grounded flights from the airline. Dense fog and storms in the days since have caused more delays.
Dallas Love Field Airport was also affected, with 30 percent of flights from Southwest Airlines, the airport’s largest carrier, experiencing delays, according to FlightAware. In Houston, the George Bush airport issued a ground stop for United Airlines flights in the afternoon.
At Dallas Fort Worth on Saturday morning, passengers sat on their luggage as they waited for postponements to end. Outside, rain fell and bolts of lightning flashed. Other travelers stood in long lines at customer service counters to change their flights.
Ashley Allen, 55, boarded a plane from Las Vegas to Dallas just before midnight on Friday, expecting that her connecting flight in Texas would bring her home to Fort Myers, Fla., by midday Saturday. But while she was in the air, she found out that her flight home had been canceled.
She has since been stranded in Dallas because the flight she rebooked was delayed.
“They canceled our flight, put us on another flight and said we could change it if we wanted,” Ms. Allen said, laughing. “There are no other flights.”
After morning delays, the airport returned to normal operations, said Brian Brooks, a spokesman for the airport.
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