A large winter storm brought severe disruptions to flights on Thursday, particularly in the nation’s mid-section.Airports from Texas to Illinois faced wintry conditions, as an unbroken line of winter storm warnings stretched from Texas to Maine. As of 12:30 p.m. ET on Thursday, 4,649 flights in the U.S. were canceled, according to FlightAware. It’s the most cancelations in a single day in a year.North Texas was particularly impacted.Dallas-based Southwest Airlines led the cancelations, over 1,000 of its flights axed, or 30% of its schedule. At its home airport of Dallas Love Field (DAL), 83% of all of the departures and 78% of all of the arrivals were canceled, a total of 357 flights, which includes other operators.Want more airline-specific news? Sign up for TPG’s free new biweekly Aviation newsletter!The situation was not any better across the metroplex at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport (DFW), where over 1,200 flights were canceled. That airport serves as the largest hub for Fort Worth-based American Airlines, which had asked the Federal Aviation Administration to impose a ground stop for its mainline and regional operations into the airport.Sign up for our daily newsletterEmail addressSign upI would like to subscribe to The Points Guy newsletters and special email promotions. The Points Guy will not share or sell your email. See privacy policy.American had canceled 703 flights or 23% of its schedule. One of its wholly-owned regional airlines, Envoy Air, canceled 557 flights, or 61% of its schedule.Regional airline Republic Airways, which operates for American, United Airlines and Delta Air Lines, canceled 320 flights, or 31% of its schedule. The nation’s largest regional airline, SkyWest Airlines, canceled 333 flights, or 15% of its schedule. SkyWest operates flights for the same carriers as Republic, and also operates flights for Alaska Airlines.More: Here’s what to do if your flight is delayed or canceledAnother American hub, Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD), saw about 25% of its arrivals and departures canceled on Thursday, or 534 flights in total. That airport is also a hub for United, which had so far canceled 227 flights, or 12% of its schedule. Denver International Airport, another United hub, saw about 13% of its arrivals and departures canceled, or about 221 flights in total.Other airports impacted on Thursday included Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (AUS), St. Louis Lambert International Airport (STL), John Glenn Columbus International Airport (CMH) and Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG).The storms are forecasted to continue moving east over the next two days, likely bringing further cancellations and delays. As of 2 p.m. ET on Thursday, nearly 1,000 flights had already been canceled for Friday.Featured 2016 file photo by John McDonnell / The Washington Post via Getty Images.
