Airlines cancel 5700 U.S. flights amid fierce winter storms - Reuters

WASHINGTON, Dec 23 (Reuters) - Airline cancellations topped 5,700 U.S. flights connected Friday arsenic monolithic winter storms snarled airdrome operations astir the United States and frustrated tens of thousands of vacation travelers.

That followed astir 2,700 canceled flights connected Thursday, portion conscionable implicit 1,000 flights person already been canceled for Saturday, according to formation tracking website FlightAware.

Passenger railroad Amtrak has canceled dozens of trains done Christmas, disrupting vacation question for thousands.

Highways successful the Midwest faced lengthy delays due to the fact that of snowy upwind oregon crashes and authorities successful parts of Indiana, Michigan, New York and Ohio urged motorists to debar nonessential travel.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) imposed crushed stops oregon delays for de-icing astatine a fig of U.S. airports due to the fact that of wintertime weather.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg told CNN the U.S. aviation strategy "is operating nether tremendous strain" with 2 antithetic storms and precocious winds affecting airports astir the country. About 10% of U.S. flights were canceled connected Thursday, Buttigieg said.

Another 10,400 U.S. flights were delayed connected Friday - including much than 40% of those operated by American Airlines (AAL.O), United Airlines (UAL.O), Delta Air Lines (DAL.N) and Southwest Airlines (LUV.N) - aft 11,300 flights were delayed Thursday.

Southwest canceled 1,238 flights connected Friday, 29% of each its scheduled flights, portion Alaska Airlines (ALK.N) canceled 507, oregon 64%, of its flights.

Seattle-Tacoma International Airport had 357 flights, oregon 63% of departures, canceled Friday. The FAA lifted a crushed halt determination owed to snowfall and crystal but precocious Friday delays were inactive averaging astir 3 hours.

Nearly fractional of departing flights astatine Detroit Metro were canceled, on with 70% astatine Portland, 38% astatine New York's LaGuardia, 29% astatine Chicago O'Hare and 27% astatine Boston.

Chicago was facing dangerously acold temperatures with upwind chills hitting minus 24 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 31 Celsius).

Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Josie Kao, Jonathan Oatis, Sandra Maler and Edmund Klamann

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