It’s a blue Christmas for some travelers this year, as airlines already canceled more than 3,000 flights and delayed over 9,600 others before noon Eastern Time on Sunday. A combination of severe winter weather and continuing staffing shortages has contributed to the problem.
On Christmas Eve, airlines around the world nixed 5,775 trips and delayed nearly 19,000 more, according to the watchdog site FlightAware. Of that total, some 3,488 canceled flights were into, within or out of the US.
These figures are well above last year’s, according to data from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics: In December 2021, roughly 420 flights a day were canceled on average and only about 3,800 delayed.
Southwest Airlines ranked the worst of US-based airlines for on-time departures Sunday morning, with 471 cancellations — about 12% of its entire schedule — and 1,112 delays, or 30% of its total schedule.
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Southwest declared a “state of operational emergency” on Christmas Eve, with nearly half (46%) of its flights Saturday delayed and more than a third (36%) canceled.
According to the travel industry blog View from the Wing, the airline has been suffering from a shortage of pilots and ramp agents. Its customer service phone line has been so besieged it reportedly stopped taking calls.
Southwest did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Delta came in a close second for the most missed flights on Christmas Day, with 445 cancellations and 231 delays.
“The decision to cancel flights is never one Delta takes lightly, especially during the holiday travel season,” the airline said in a statement on its website. “But the safety of our customers and our people is paramount. We strive to cancel flights well in advance of scheduled departure to allow our customers to adjust their plans before going to the airport.”
United, the next closest carrier, only registered 145 cancellations and 312 delays.
Thanks to frigid temperatures and the threat of black ice, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Delta’s US hub, had the most disruptions of any airport anywhere on Earth on Sunday — 94 canceled and 109 delayed outgoing flights. Another 119 flights slated to arrive at Hartsfield-Jackson were nixed and 94 delayed.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp declared a state of emergency lasting through Monday “to mitigate potential consequences of this winter weather.”
On Sunday, Denver International Airport, Southwest’s biggest hub, had the second highest rate of disrupted flights in the US, with 133 incoming and outgoing flights canceled and 230 delayed.
Read On: How to Avoid Flight Delays and Cancellations
More Than 3,000 Flights Canceled on Christmas Morning
