Flight cancellations: Why Southwest Airlines is melting down | CNN ...

New York CNN —

A punishing winter storm that dumped multiple feet of snow across much of America led to widespread flight cancellations over the Christmas holiday. By Monday, air travel was more or less back to normal – unless you booked your holiday travel with Southwest Airlines.

More than 90% of Wednesday’s US flight cancellations were Southwest flights, according to flight tracking website FlightAware. Southwest canceled more than 2,500 flights. The next highest: SkyWest, with 77.

Southwest warned that it would continue canceling flights until it could get its operations back on track. The company’s CEO said this has been the biggest disruption he’s seen in his career. The Biden administration is investigating.

What gives? Southwest had a combination of bad luck and bad planning.

The storm hit Chicago and Denver hard, where Southwest has two of its biggest hubs – Chicago Midway airport and Denver International airport.

More bad luck: The storm hit just as the so-called tripledemic surged across America, leaving people and their families sick with Covid, the flu and RSV. Although Southwest says it was fully staffed for the holiday weekend, illness makes adjusting to increased system stress difficult. Many airlines still lack sufficient staff to recover when events like bad weather cause delays or flight crews max out the hours they’re allowed to work under federal safety regulations.

Underinvestment

But Southwest (LUV) also hurt itself with an aggressive schedule and by underinvesting in its operations.

Southwest’s schedule includes shorter flights with tighter turnaround times, which are causing some of the problems, Kathleen Bangs, a FlightAware spokesperson, told CNN.

“Those turnaround times bog things down,” Bangs said.

Stranded customers have been unable to get through to Southwest’s customer service lines to rebook flights or find lost baggage.

Employees also said they have not been able to communicate with the airline, the president of the union that represents Southwest’s flight attendants told CNN Monday.

“The phone system the company uses is just not working,” Lyn Montgomery, President of TWU Local 556, told CNN’s Pamela Brown. “They’re just not manned with enough manpower in order to give the scheduling changes to flight attendants, and that’s created a ripple effect that is creating chaos throughout the nation.”

On a call with employees Monday, Southwest Chief Operating Officer Andrew Watterson explained that the company’s outdated scheduling software quickly became the main culprit of the cancellations once the storm cleared, according to a transcript of the call that was obtained by CNN from an aviation source.

The extreme cold, ice and snow grounded planes and left some crew members stranded, so Southwest’s crew schedulers worked furiously to put a new schedule together, matching available crew with aircraft that were ready to fly. But the Federal Aviation Administration strictly regulates when flight crews can work, complicating Southwest’s scheduling efforts.

“The process of matching up those crew members with the aircraft could not be handled by our technology,” Watterson said.

Southwest ended up with planes that were ready to take off with available crew, but the company’s scheduling software wasn’t able to match them quickly and accurately, Watterson added.

“As a result, we had to ask our crew schedulers to do this manually, and it’s extraordinarily difficult,” he said. “That is a tedious, long process.”

Watterson noted that manual scheduling left Southwest building an incredibly delicate house of cards that could quickly tumble when the company encountered a problem.

“They would make great progress, and then some other disruption would happen, and it would unravel their work,” Watterson said. “So, we spent multiple days where we kind of got close to finishing the problem, and then it had to be reset.”

In reducing the company’s flights by two thirds, Southwest should have “more than ample crew resources to handle that amount of activity,” Watterson said.

A lack of tools

The problems Southwest faces have been brewing for a long time, said Captain Casey Murray, the president of the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association.

“We’ve been having these issues for the past 20 months,” he told CNN. “We’ve seen these sorts of meltdowns occur on a much more regular basis and it really just has to do with outdated processes and outdated IT.”

He said the airline’s operations haven’t changed much since the 1990s.

“It’s phones, it’s computers, it’s processing power, it’s the programs used to connect us to airplanes – that’s where the problem lies, and it’s systemic throughout the whole airline,” he said.

Southwest CEO Bob Jordan, in a message to employees obtained by CNN, acknowledged many of Murray’s concerns, and promised the company will invest in better systems.

“Part of what we’re suffering is a lack of tools,” Jordan told employees. “We’ve talked an awful lot about modernizing the operation, and the need to do that.”

He said the airline is “committed to and invested in” improving its systems, but “we need to be able to produce solutions faster.”

President Joe Biden on Tuesday urged consumers to check if they’re eligible for compensation as cascading airline delays have disrupted holiday travel across the country.

“Our Administration is working to ensure airlines are held accountable,” Biden tweeted.

The US Department of Transportation said it is investigating.

“USDOT is concerned by Southwest’s unacceptable rate of cancellations and delays & reports of lack of prompt customer service,” the agency tweeted. “The Department will examine whether cancellations were controllable and if Southwest is complying with its customer service plan.”

To recover, Jordan told the Wall Street Journal the company plans to operate just over a third of its schedule in upcoming days to give itself the ability for crews to get into the right positions.

Not Southwest’s first rodeo

If this is all ringing a bell, that’s because this isn’t the first time Southwest’s service melted down in epic fashion. In October 2021, Southwest canceled more than 2,000 flights over a four-day period, costing the airline $75 million.

Southwest blamed that service meltdown on a combination of bad weather in Florida, a brief problem with air traffic control in the area and a lack of available staff to adjust to those problems. It has admitted it was having service problems caused by short staffing even before the thousands of canceled flights stranded hundreds of thousands of passengers.

Similar to this month’s service mayhem, Southwest fared far worse than its competitors last October. While Southwest canceled hundreds of flights in the days following the peak of October’s disruption, competitors quickly returned to normal service.

Later that month, on a call with Wall Street analysts, then-CEO Gary Kelly said the company had made adjustments to prevent a similar meltdown in the future.

“We have reined in our capacity plans to adjust to the current staffing environment, and our ontime performance has improved, accordingly,” said Kelly on October 21. “We are aggressively hiring to a goal of approximately 5,000 new employees by the end of this year, and we are currently more than halfway toward that goal.”

And, just like the latest disruption, the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association claimed the cancellations were due to “management’s poor planning.”

– CNN’s Ross Levitt contributed to this report

Hundreds more flights canceled Monday, disrupting the holiday ...

Editor’s Note: This is an updated version of a story that originally ran Sunday.

New York CNN —

It’s another chaotic holiday weekend for those traveling by air this Memorial Day.

Upwards of 6,000 global flights have been canceled since Friday with hundreds more fights delayed, according to flight tracking website FlightAware.

Some 1,640 flights were canceled on Sunday alone, FlightAware data indicates, with more than 500 of those flying within, into or out of the US. On Monday morning there were already 1,228 cancellations, including more than 300 flights traveling within, into or out of the US.

Delta Air Lines (DAL) is heavily affected by the cancellations, with more than 500 domestic and international flights flights axed on Saturday, Sunday and Monday.

The carrier blamed Saturday’s cancellations on bad weather and “air traffic control actions” that took place on Friday, saying it is trying to preemptively cancel flights at least 24 hours in advance.

Delta canceled 121 flights on Monday, representing 4% of its operations. American Airlines canceled 117 flights on Monday, or 3% of its operations.

Delta said in an online post that it will issue travel waivers for those affected by bad weather in the Southeast and Northeast this weekend. The most affected airports, which include the New York City and Washington, DC areas, are listed on the company’s website.

AAA estimated 3 million Americans would be traveling by air over the weekend.

On Thursday, Delta announced it was decreasing its summer flight schedule. From July 1 through August 7, the airline said, it would cut around 100 daily flights primarily in the US and Latin America.

“More than any time in our history, the various factors currently impacting our operation — weather and air traffic control, vendor staffing, increased COVID case rates contributing to higher-than-planned unscheduled absences in some work groups — are resulting in an operation that isn’t consistently up to the standards Delta has set for the industry in recent years,” said Chief Customer Experience Officer Allison Ausband in an online post.

Separately, JetBlue said it would cut 8% to 10% of its summer schedule. Alaska Airlines reduced its schedule by about 2% through June to match “pilot capacity.”

– CNN’s Marnie Hunter and Catherine Thorbecke contributed to this report.

Winter storm's icy cold and wind knocks out power to over a million ...

Thursday flight cancellations top 2,400 nationwide, disrupting ...

CNN —

Snow, rain, ice, wind and frigid temperatures are disrupting air travel plans across the United States as well as bus and Amtrak passenger train service.

Airlines canceled more than 2,400 US flights by 9 p.m. ET Thursday and proactively canceled more than 2,200 flights for Friday, according to the flight tracking site FlightAware. Even for Saturday, more than 125 flights were already canceled.

Delays were even more extensive on Thursday: More than 9,300 as of 9 p.m. ET.

The impacts are being felt hardest in Chicago and Denver, where around a quarter of arrivals and departures – hundreds of flights at each airport – were canceled on Thursday, FlightAware data show.

At one point Thursday at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, delays averaging 159 minutes – almost three hours – were being caused by snow and ice, according to a notice from the Federal Aviation Administration.

Temperatures at the O’Hare dropped to 5 degrees Fahrenheit (-15 Celsius) around 6:45 p.m. local time. Light snow and fog/mist were reported by the National Weather Service.

The FAA said departing aircraft at Dallas Love, Dallas-Fort Worth, Denver and Minneapolis airports require a spraying of de-icing fluid for safe travel.

New York braces

In the busy New York City metro area, the FAA warned that Newark flights should expect delays because of visibility issues.

The region’s three large airports are all warning travelers that the incoming winter weather front may disrupt their travels.

“Flight activity at #LaGuardiaAirport may be disrupted by heavy rain and strong winds later today and Friday. Travelers, please confirm flight status with your airline before heading to the airport,” LaGuardia Airport posted on Twitter. John F. Kennedy and Newark Airport also posted similar notices.

Airlines offer no-fee flight changes

Many airlines have issued weather waivers allowing travelers to change their itineraries without penalty during a short window.

For those whose flights are still scheduled to fly, the Transportation Security Administration is recommending that passengers arrive at the airport earlier than usual.

John Busch, Reagan National Airport’s TSA federal security director, told reporters that all airports “expect to be busier this holiday season than we’ve been in several years coming out of the pandemic. We’ve already seen some of our busiest days, yesterday and today and we expect maybe Friday 30th ahead of the New Year’s holiday can be also a very busy day.”

But Busch added that TSA is “very well prepared to handle additional volume and throughput for our security checkpoints.”

Travelers adjusting their plans

Maria Ihekwaba, who was traveling from Chicago to Clear Lake, Iowa, with her granddaughter on Thursday morning, told CNN she was trying to depart as soon as possible.

“Especially when you’re traveling from Chicago, you never know what could happen in Chicago because it’s the Windy City,” Ihekwaba said.

Traveler Kari Lucas, from San Diego, told CNN she was visiting her sister and brother-in-law, but cut the trip short as she didn’t want to get caught in the impending weather.

“I was worried because San Diego, we don’t get these snowstorms,” she said. “So I don’t like it to be trapped in the airport for long periods of time.”

“It seemed like the best choice to make right now,” she said.

Bus service disrupted

It’s not just flights that are being affected by the bomb cyclone.

Greyhound issued a service alert on Thursday warning customers that those traveling in the Midwest over the next two days may have their trips delayed or canceled altogether.

Greyhound, the largest provider of intercity bus service, listed more than a dozen cities from West Virginia to Minnesota that are among those impacted. They include:

• Charleston, West Virginia

• Chicago

• Cleveland

• Dallas

• Danville, Illinois

• Davenport, Iowa

• Denver

• Detroit

• Indianapolis

• Kansas City

• Minneapolis

• St. Louis

• Wichita, Kansas

Greyhound said riders can call 1-833-233-8507 to reschedule.

Amtrak train service hit, too

Amtrak has also been forced to delay or cancel passenger service for some lines in the Midwest and Northeast.

Click here for disruptions the rail service posted as of 5 p.m. Thursday.

In its notice, Amtrak said that “customers with reservations on trains that are being modified will typically be accommodated on trains with similar departure times or another day.

“Amtrak will waive additional charges for customers looking to change their reservation during the modified schedule by calling our reservation center at 1-800-USA-RAIL.”

Impact on Christmas deliveries

FedEx says it is watching the winter weather and has “contingency plans in place to help keep our team members safe and lessen any impact” on Christmas deliveries.

“In anticipation of severe weather, we have been repositioning assets so we can provide service where and when it is safe to do so,” FedEx told CNN in a statement.

Greg Wallace Paul P. Murphy Carol Alvarado

Storm still snarling flights, cancellations top 5,700

Ben Mutzabaugh, USA TODAY

U

pdated Friday at 10 a.m. ET.

Flight schedules are gradually improving today (March 8), though problems still remain in the Northeast.

As of 9:30 a.m. ET, more than 330 flights have been canceled nationwide, according to flight-tracking service FlightStats. Most of those come at airports serving New York City and New England, places that are still feeling the effects of a winter storm that snarled flights from the Dakotas to the Atlantic as it moved across the USA this week.

Of today's cancellations, nearly two thirds of those come from just three airports: Boston Logan, New York LaGuardia and Newark Liberty.

Conditions are expected to improve later today as the storm pulls offshore, taking its strong winds and precipitation with it.

But that's after nearly 5,700 flights have been canceled across the USA since Monday, when the storm first began disrupting flights in the upper Midwest. Thousands of other flights have suffered long storm-related delays during the same period.

The biggest daily disruption from this week's storm came on Wednesday, when more than 2,400 U.S. flights were canceled. Most of those cancellations came at Washington Dulles and Washington Reagan National, where airlines preemptively scrapped more than 1,200 the day before in anticipation of heavy snow.

But the storm was a bust for large parts of the D.C. area, with downtown and the eastern suburbs seeing mostly rain or wet, non-accumulating snow. About 5 inches accumulated at Washington Dulles, but it was mostly a rain event at Reagan National and BWI.

"There have been incidents like this before where weather forecasts and reality are divorced," Henry Harteveldt, travel industry analyst for Hudson Crossing, says in an e-mail to Today in the Sky.

"It's a no-win scenario for airlines," Harteveldt adds. "Ignore the forecasts and carriers risk having aircraft and crew stuck and unable to efficiently recover. Heed the warnings, and airlines risk inconveniencing passengers with preemptive cancellations, along with routing aircraft and crews out of the storm's path. In each scenario, airlines run the risk of losing revenue and absorbing extra costs."

"In this case, airlines rolled the dice, and lost. The good news is that the lack of snow and bad weather may speed up their operational recovery," he says.

The storm first began affecting flights Monday, with about 370 flights canceled nationwide, according to FlightStats. More than 1,800 were canceled Tuesday as the storm snarled flights in Minneapolis and moved into the Chicago area. Then came Wednesday's 2,400 cancellations, mostly in D.C. and the Northeast, followed by about 790 for Thursday and the 330 so far today.

As has become common, most big airlines issued flexible rebooking policies for fliers with flights to, from or through the airports in the storm's path.

The fine print varies by airline, but most allow customers to make one change within a certain rebooking window without paying additional fare or change fees.

7,100 flights axed since Monday; airlines eye recovery

Ben Mutzabaugh

USA TODAY

Last update: 9:45 p.m. ET.

Air travelers faced a third consecutive day of disruptions on Wednesday, with carriers waiving rebooking fees for fliers scrambling to make alternative plans.

More than 2,325 flights had been canceled nationwide as of 9:45 p.m. ET on Wednesday, according to flight-tracking service FlightAware.com. That follows about 3,260 flight cancellations b on Tuesday and another 1,030 on Monday.

And, with more than 520 flights already grounded for Thursday, that put the week's cumulative cancellation tally at about 7,100 flights since Monday, according to FligthAware's count.

The hardest hit airport on Wednesday was Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International, the world's busiest airport and the top hub for Delta Air Lines.

About 40% of the airport's flight schedule today — more than 530 departures and more than 547 arrivals -- had been canceled there as of 9:45 p.m. ET. That's partly fallout from Atlanta's problems on Tuesday, when more than 930 combined arrivals and departures were canceled. Many of Wednesday morning's cancellations resulted from planes or crew being out of position from Tuesday's disruption.

But it also came as the Atlanta metro area struggled to get going Wednesday after 2 to 3 inches of snow fell there on Tuesday. Many highways remained coated with ice as of mid-day and mass transit systems were running at reduced capacity. That was complicating efforts of airport workers attempting to get to the airport.

Delta and other airlines hoped to begin a recovery in Atlanta later today, working to get planes and crews back into their regular schedules. Still, especially with Wednesday's lingering problems, it could take airlines 24 to 72 hours, perhaps longer, to accommodate all of the fliers whose plans have been disrupted by this week's wintry weather.

That also was true nationwide, where delays and cancellations snarled thousands of flights at other key airports as well.

Chicago O'Hare and Houston Bush Intercontinental each had about 18% of their Wednesday flights grounded as of 9:45 p.m. ET, according to FlightAware. At Charlotte, the figure was about 13% All three airports are among the nation's biggest airline hubs.

Some smaller airports in the south, had 50% or more of their departures grounded in the fallout of the wintry weather. Among those: Norfolk, Va.; Charleston, S.C., Birmingham; Pensacola, Fla.; Savannah, Ga.; Lafayette, La.; Mobile, Ala.; and the Northwest Florida Regional Airport near Fort Walton Beach.

Many of the USA's busiest airports also were hit hard by delays and cancellations on Monday and Tuesday, including Houston Bush Intercontinental, Chicago O'Hare, Chicago Midway, Cleveland and others. Dozens of other, smaller airports from Nebraska to Texas to Florida and the Carolinas had substantial portions of their schedules scrubbed as a result of the storm.

Southwest flights back on track Friday after slew of cancellations

Southwest resumed normal operations Friday after canceling more than 15,000 flights in just over a week, according to FlightAware, which tracks flight status in real time.

"We appreciate the dedicated work of the Southwest team to restore our schedule, and we anticipate minimal disruptions for the weekend," the airline said in a statement Friday. "We look forward to the opportunity to address any needs of our customers over the coming days as we strive to return to our previous level of Southwest hospitality and reliability."

About 1% of Southwest's flight are canceled Friday, compared to roughly two-thirds of flights in days prior, according to FlightAware. Many customers are still trying to track down luggage, rebook travel or get money back for ruined trips.

"We know even our deepest apologies – to our customers, to our employees, and to all affected through this disruption – only go so far," Southwest said Thursday. "We have much work ahead of us, including investing in new solutions to manage wide-scale disruptions."

Here's what Southwest customers should know.

'They had beaten me down':How Southwest's mass flight cancellations forced passengers to improvise

'There's nothing we can do':Southwest woes leave thousands of bags lost and left in piles at airports

What happens if Southwest cancels my flight?

Customers whose flights are canceled may rebook or request a refund for their flights on Southwest's website.

Additionally, all Southwest customers who were scheduled to fly through Jan. 2 may rebook without paying additional charges or fly standby within 30 days of their original travel date between previously booked cities.

"You shouldn't need to get on a call or stand in a line, and you can make a flight changes you need to at Southwest.com," the airline's Chief Commercial Officer Ryan Green said in a video Wednesday.

Customers who opt to call 1-800-I-FLY-SWA should expect long wait times.

Is there any way to get refunds on Southwest?

Customers whose flights were canceled may fill out a form on Southwest's website to request a refund if they choose not to rebook.

The Department of Transportation requires all airlines to offer refunds when a flight is canceled for any reason. Rules about delays are more complicated and vary widely. The DOT's dashboard for travelers lists policies by airline.

Can I be reimbursed for extra expenses?

Southwest customers who experience cancellations or a "significant flight delay" between Dec. 24 and Jan. 2 may submit receipts by email or through its website

for reimbursement consideration.

From Southwest's Email Us page, customers are directed to click on Complaint, then Flight, then Cancellation and then Next to get to a support page where they can describe their situation and upload receipts.

"We will honor reasonable requests for reimbursement for meals, hotel, and alternate transportation (such as rental cars or tickets on other airlines)," the airline said on its website.

Flight delayed or canceled? What you need to know and what airlines owe travelers

My flight was canceled: How I got most of my costs covered (after 3 months)

Where is my luggage?

Unclaimed bags belonging to Southwest customers who didn't make it as far as their checked luggage have piled up at airports across the country.

The airline has created an online form travelers can fill out to help reunite with their bags. Luggage will be delivered free of charge.

Why did Southwest Airlines cancel flights?

Southwest said it was "fully staffed and prepared" heading into the holiday weekend, but severe weather forced operational changes from which it struggled to recover.

“With our large fleet of airplanes and flight crews out of position in dozens of locations, and after days of trying to operate as much of our full schedule across the busy holiday weekend, we reached a decision point to significantly reduce our flying to catch up,” Southwest CEO Bob Jordan said in a video Tuesday, in which he also apologized.

After meeting with Southwest's leadership, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg told CNN's "The Situation Room With Wolf Blitzer" that "they indicated a number of issues that they're having with systems, legacy systems for managing their schedule and where their crews are."

"Due to the magnitude and scale of the disruptions, our technology could not align our resources," Southwest Airlines told USA TODAY. "As a result, our crew schedulers are tackling the issue manually and that is a tedious, long process that takes time and trained resources to accomplish."

Jordan noted that the airline's tools work 99% of the time, "but clearly, we need to double down on our already existing plans to upgrade systems for these extreme circumstances so that we never again face what's happening right now."

Randy Barnes, president of Transport Workers Union of America Local 555, which represents Southwest ground crews, cast additional blame. "If airline managers had planned better, the meltdown we’ve witnessed in recent days could have been lessened or averted," Barnes said in a statement.

How many flights did Southwest cancel?

Southwest canceled 15,716 flights between between Thursday, Dec. 22 and Thursday, Dec. 29, according to FlightAware.

'Nightmare' flight cancellations:1,000 Southwest flyers sleep overnight at Denver airport

Southwest stock rise:Southwest may be hated by stranded consumers, but Wall Street still likes it

What is Southwest doing about cancellations?

Southwest has been reaching out to travelers and asking other customers who aren't scheduled to fly within the next 72 hours to delay calling to avoid tying up busy phone lines. The airline is also apologizing for "falling short," saying "our heartfelt apologies for this are just beginning."

"We always take care of our customers," Southwest's CEO said. "And we will lean in and go above and beyond as they would expect us to. Teams are working on all of that: processing refunds, proactively reaching out and taking care of customers who are dealing with costly detours and reroutes, as just a few examples."

Some lawmakers want more. In a joint statement, Sens. Edward Markey, D-Mass., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., called for "not only rebooked tickets, ticket refunds, and hotel, meal, and transportation reimbursement, but significant monetary compensation for the disruption to their holiday plans.”

Biden:'Administration is working to ensure airlines are held accountable'

'Unacceptable':DOT launching review of Southwest cancellations

What is the government doing about Southwest's 'meltdown'?

The Department of Transportation and the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation are looking into the cancellations, and President Joe Biden said his administration would hold airlines accountable.

"What we did, especially over the course of the problems we saw this year, was press the airlines to increase their customer service commitments. They did that. They did that in writing, and now that we have that in hand, we are able to hold them accountable to a higher standard than what was possible last year," Buttigieg told "NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt."

He added, “This has clearly crossed the line from what's an uncontrollable weather situation to something that is the airline's direct responsibility."

Contributing: Rebecca Morin and Kathleen Wong, USA TODAY

Why are flights being canceled on Saturday? Weather and demand ...

For a third day in a row, travelers across the country are facing high numbers of flight delays and cancellations.

As of 4 p.m. ET on Saturday, more than 3,300 U.S. flights were delayed and 775 U.S. flights were cancelled, according to FlightAware, which tracks flights in real time.

Friday reported a whopping total of over 8,940 U.S. flight delays and 1,470 U.S. flight cancellations, according to FlightAware. More than 1,750 U.S. flights were also canceled on Thursday.

The thousands of flight delays and cancellations come as U.S. airlines try to recover from severe storms that barreled through much of the country this week, while also working to accommodate the growing number of travelers on summer vacation.

Friday:Thousands of US flights canceled or delayed Friday after one of worst summer air travel days yet

Nationwide, Delta and American Airlines reported some of the highest numbers of cancellations both Friday and Saturday morning – with their schedules reduced by 7% and 5%, respectively, for Saturday as of 4 p.m. ET.

Those numbers do not include flights on their regional affiliates, which operate as American Eagle and Delta Connection.

"The vast majority of that is weather-related," Curtis Blessing, spokesman for American Airlines, said on Friday.

This week's numbers aren't the first time U.S. flights have seen thousands of delays and cancellations this year. Between Friday and Monday on Memorial Day Weekend, FlightAware reported nearly 2,800 U.S. flight cancellations and delays for more than 20,000 U.S. flights.

In May:Memorial Day air travelers face thousands of cancellations, delays over holiday weekend

And this weekend's issues weren't limited to the U.S.: FlightAware reported more than 12,700 delays and over 2,400 cancellations around the globe for Saturday by 4 p.m. ET. The site logged over 21,800 flight delays and almost 3,330 cancellations worldwide on Friday.

What travelers need to know

If your flight is canceled, the U.S. Department of Transportation requires airlines to rebook you on their next available service with space. If that will not work for you, the carrier is required to offer you a refund, even if you bought a nonrefundable ticket.

Summer travel:What airlines owe you when flights are canceled, delayed

In the event of a delay, an airline's responsibility is a little less clear. DOT does require compensation for "significant delays" but has no official definition for what counts as "significant."

Many airlines updated their policies during the pandemic to give travelers more flexibility in rebooking or altering plans. Delta Air Lines, for example, automatically rebooks passengers whose flights were canceled and sends them their new itineraries via email, text and the Fly Delta App. Customers are free to change their rebooked flight online or via Delta's digital messaging platform if the new itinerary doesn't work.

What's everyone talking about?:Sign up for our trending newsletter to get the latest news of the day

Contributing: The Associated Press

Snow blankets Greece and Turkey as wild weather system creates ...

CNN —

A rare and severe snowstorm has blanketed parts of Greece and Turkey, causing chaos on the streets of major cities and forcing the evacuation of thousands of people.

Storm Elpida swept across Greece on Monday, covering Athens with heavy snow, which rarely falls in the Greek capital but has now occurred in a second consecutive year.

Athens has only seen six snow events since 2000, and while it usually experiences average snowfall of 1.3 centimeters (0.5 inches) annually, Elpida has already brought around 8 centimeters (3.1 inches), the most since February 2021, when 10 centimeters (3.9 inches) fell. The islands of Mykonos and Santorini also experienced rare snowfalls.

Parts of Athens were hit by power cuts, and the grid operator said crews were working to restore electricity.

Rescue crews, including the army, worked through the night to assist thousands of people stranded in their cars on a motorway in the Greek capital after the snowstorm swept through the country on Monday.

As temperatures fell overnight, soldiers handed out food, water and blankets to drivers, some of whom were stranded for more than 10 hours. TV footage showed the road and vehicles covered in snow.

More than 3,500 people had been evacuated by early Tuesday, some abandoning their cars on foot; around 1,200 cars remained stuck on the Attiki Odos, the capital’s main ring-road, government spokesperson Giannis Oikonomou said.

“We had a very difficult night and a superhuman evacuation effort is underway on Attiki Odos,” Oikonomou told Greek television.

“We are still in a very difficult phase, as the forecasts indicate that we will face [weather] difficulties again in a while,” he said.

Snow falling in the center of Athens, Greece on Monday. Nikolas Kokovlis/NURPHO/Associated Press

The Parthenon temple atop the ancient Acropolis hill, seen covered with snow on Monday. Thanassis Stavrakis/AP

Authorities declared Tuesday a public holiday, shutting public offices and private businesses except supermarkets, pharmacies and petrol stations in the greater Athens area and on some islands.

Fifteen passengers were injured when a rail transport vehicle tried to pull a train carrying about 200 passengers which had halted in heavy snow in central Greece.

The erratic winter weather comes after a summer of high temperatures and wildfires in Greece, which scientists linked to the climate crisis.

Monday’s storm also triggered a rare ‘snownado,’ a tornado-like funnel traveling over a snow-covered landscape, after a waterspout moved onshore, swirling snow around the base of the twister.

A rare waterspout seen on Greece's Skopelos island on Monday. Spyros Patsis/Reuters

Snow covered the capital from the Acropolis hill to the coast in the south and brought Covid-19 vaccinations to a halt, forced schools to close and disrupted flights.

Greek carrier Aegean Airlines canceled all but five flights on Monday and said it expected schedules to be disrupted on Tuesday and possibly Wednesday.

Flights were also suspended for a second day at Istanbul Airport in Turkey, and private vehicles were barred from city streets on Tuesday, as heavy snowfall there also snarled traffic and left people stranded in the country’s biggest city and beyond.

Istanbul Airport said on its website that flight operations had been suspended until 10 a.m. GMT (5 a.m. ET) on Tuesday due to adverse weather conditions. Flag-carrier Turkish Airlines said on Monday it had canceled all flights from the airport.

Snowfall in Istanbul began late last week and has picked up in recent days in the city of 16 million people. Footage from the airport – among the world’s largest – showed runways covered in a thick blanket of snow with aircraft and vehicles barely visible.

Children play in the snow in the Kucukcekmece district of Istanbul on January 24, 2022. Yasin Akgul/AFP/Getty Images

Vehicles stuck on a snow-covered road after heavy snowfall hit Istanbul. Muhammed Enes Yildirim/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Istanbul Governor Ali Yerlikaya took the rare step of temporarily banning private cars from the streets until emergency teams are able to clear them, while many public workers were granted administrative leave to keep the number of people commuting to a minimum.

Footage shared by the governor showed trucks and cars stranded along highways in and around the city.

A video posted on social media showed a man skiing through city streets late on Monday, with people waving as he passed.

Far away in Turkey’s south, snow fell on the beaches of the resort city of Antalya for the first time in 29 years.

Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu said 55,000 tons of salt had been used on the roads; he called on Turks to clear the snow in front of homes and shops to help emergency teams.

“We hope that if we overcome tonight with measures as well, we won’t have any problems left. May God protect everyone,” he said while visiting a salt facility.

Planes grounded at Istanbul's airport on Tuesday. Umit Bektas/Reuters

People walk in front of Istanbul's snow-dusted Blue Mosque. Erdem Sahin/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

Across the country some 4,600 people were left stranded on roads and elsewhere, and thousands had been placed in temporary housing, the Disaster and Emergency Authority said.

While scientists have not yet analyzed the link between this particular storm and climate change, global warming has pushed average temperatures in the Mediterranean up by more than 1 degree Celsius since the early 1990s, according to the EU’s Copernicus environmental monitoring program.

Sea surface temperatures in the Eastern Mediterranean and Black Sea were around 2 degrees Celsius above average in the lead-up to the snowfall, and that increase in heat would have provided additional energy to the storm as well as added moisture to the air, increasing snowfall.

Reuters Robert Shackelford
Robert Shackelford

What caused the FAA's NOTAM outage? Experts say old tech played ...

More than 10,000 flights in the U.S. were delayed or canceled as a technical failure forced the Federal Aviation Administration to pause departures nationwide for about 90 minutes Wednesday morning.

According to the agency, an outage affecting the Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) system, which alerts pilots to safety issues at and around the nation's airports, was behind the disruption.

The FAA has not yet identified a specific cause of the failure, but experts told USA TODAY that the U.S. air traffic control system often relies on outdated technology to keep things moving, and a computer glitch of some kind probably was responsible.

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With the FAA up for reauthorization in Congress this year, those same experts said they hope the government uses the opportunity to fund needed upgrades to the agency's IT systems.

What is the NOTAM system?

A Notice to Air Missions provides pilots and other flight personnel with real-time safety information on flight operations and airports.

NOTAMs list potential hazards and conditions that can affect flights – from runway construction or possible icing to a change in an aeronautical facility or flight service.

Pilots are required to consult NOTAMs before starting every flight.

The FAA notes that a NOTAM "states the abnormal status of a component of the National Airspace System (NAS) – not the normal status," adding that NOTAMs are "not known far enough in advance to be publicized by other means."

What is the NOTAM system? The FAA outage causing flight delays across the US, explained.

"It's a safety issue," Ahmed Abdelghany, associate dean for research at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University's David B. O’Maley College of Business, told USA TODAY. "God forbid if the pilots are not updated with abnormal conditions – it might lead to some serious problems like accidents or something like that."

The NOTAM system used to be telephone-based, with pilots calling flight service stations for the information, but that process moved online.

What caused the NOTAM failure on Wednesday?

The FAA said it's investigating the problem but hasn't determined an official cause. But experts told USA TODAY that IT issues are a likely culprit.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said he directed "an after-action process to determine root causes" and make recommendations for how to address them.

"Similar to what Southwest saw last month with difficulties in using an antiquated system to handle a major weather disruption to the system, it’s highly likely that the FAA saw this problem exacerbated because they were running on older technologies," said Laurie Garrow, a professor of civil engineering that specializes in aviation at Georgia Tech.

Mark Dombroff, an aviation lawyer and partner at Fox Rothschild who formerly worked with the FAA and Department of Justice, compared the NOTAM system to the computers we all use every day.

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"Our systems still crash," he said. "You shut your system down, and you reboot it. ... The system comes back, and you continue to work it."

But, he said, the FAA will investigate the cause to ensure it doesn't happen again.

Another expert said Wednesday's failure highlights a need to make the NOTAM system more redundant.

"It wouldn't matter whether somebody kicked the cord or whether they failed the server for some reason. If it's a single point of failure, there's a probability of it (happening) again," said Robert W. Mann, an aviation consultant in Port Washington, New York. "I would say the same thing about Southwest's crew reassignment system, but it's easier said than it is done. ... In both cases, it's going to require FAA validation of the replacement system while you chug along using the steam gauge version of that system."

How can the FAA prevent a similar failure in the future?

The experts who spoke to USA TODAY all agreed that the FAA's back-end technology needs an upgrade.

"I hope it’s a call for more funding from Congress that’s desperately needed to modernize the air traffic control system," Garrow said.

Arjun Garg, a partner at the Hogan Lovells law firm and former FAA chief counsel, said the agency's technology is typically complicated and often outdated as a result of funding and implementation cycles in government

"The lack of stable consistent funding when you’re on the budget appropriations cycle of the federal government, it significantly hampers the ability to conduct that kind of upgrade," he said. "The FAA has an added hamper” because its system has to run all day every day reliably, and you need to be able to do those upgrades while it’s still running.

With the upcoming FAA reauthorization, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a news briefing Wednesday, the administration welcomes "the attention from Congress" on how to help the agency address any problems with NOTAM.

Maria Cantwell, chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, said Wednesday that the committee "will be looking into what caused this outage and how redundancy plays a role in preventing future outages."

Story continues below.

What travelers need to know

Though the delays and cancellations that resulted from the outage are obviously frustrating for flyers, experts say, the FAA prioritizes safety above all, and grounding flights was the right move.

"I suspect they've got a pretty good idea of what happened," Dombroff said. "If they didn't know what happened, I've got a feeling the system would not be in the process of returning to normal."

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He emphasized that travelers should feel safe getting on planes today, even if those planes are delayed.

"The FAA is first in line to want to figure out what happened and ensure it doesn't happen again," he said. "We should revel in the quality and safety of the system we have and understand it isn't always going to work the way we want it to."

Many airlines have issued waivers to allow passengers whose flights were affected to adjust their travel plans without paying fare differences or change fees.

Contributing: Wyatte Grantham-Philips, USA TODAY; The Associated Press