US airlines cut flights again as another winter storm looms

US AIRLINES are still paring back flights, as a deep freeze hampers the restart of operations at some major hubs.

The industry is also bracing for further disruptions, with another arctic blast looming later this week.

Delta Air Lines said unfavourable weather conditions in the north-east will affect services at its hubs in Boston and New York’s John F Kennedy International Airport.

American Airlines Group has already axed about 500 mainline and regional services on Tuesday (Jan 27), flight-tracking platform FlightAware said.

This was after the company scrapped more than half of its scheduled flights on Monday.  

So far, almost 1,000 flights were cancelled on Tuesday as of 1 am New York time (2 pm Singapore time), the data provider said.

While this is down from the more than 6,100 cancellations that took place on Monday and Sunday’s 11,600 – the most since the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic – it underscores the persistent challenges airlines are facing in getting things back on track. 

Frigid temperatures and freezing rain continue to affect large parts of the eastern US, and the National Weather Service has warned of another potential significant winter storm later this week.

That system will bring a blast of arctic air, keeping parts of the US in a deep freeze as it spreads to the east, south-east and stretches into Florida.

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The potential cost of the winter storm is likely to be front of mind for investors when American Air and JetBlue Airways report fourth-quarter earnings this week.

That earnings period will reflect the effects of the US government shutdown in 2025, which led to shortages of air traffic control staff at airports across the country that snarled flights. 

American Air has already said that the storm’s impacts were exacerbated by the fact that some of the cities in its path do not have the infrastructure in place to manage the severe conditions.

This led to staffing issues, as workers struggled to navigate roads. BLOOMBERG