More than 1,800 flights were canceled and many more delayed Tuesday as a brutal ice storm continued to batter parts of the southern and central United States, causing transportation problems for a second day.
The video in the media player is from a previous report.
As winter conditions affected an area from Texas to West Virginia, aircraft tracking website FlightAware reported that more than 1,800 flights within the US had been canceled and 3,900 delayed by 6 p.m. EST.
More than 900 flights had already been canceled on Wednesday by early Tuesday evening.
Texas in particular has been hardest hit.
Three of the state’s airports — Dallas-Fort Worth International (DFW), Dallas Love Field (DAL) and Austin-Bergstrom International (AUS) — are seeing significant disruption, according to FlightAware, with Dallas-Fort Worth seeing the bulk of the cancellations. . As of 5 p.m. ET, nearly 1,000 flights to and from DFW have been cancelled.
Dallas-based Southwest Airlines is canceling more than 500 flights, about 12% of its entire schedule.
Nashville International Airport in Tennessee has also seen significant cancellations, with about 140 flights canceled by 6 p.m. ET.
Southwest, American, regional carriers Envoy Air and SkyWest were the hardest hit airlines.
The Texas-based US Southwest Airlines each canceled nearly 600 flights by Tuesday evening, representing 15% and 19% of their schedules, respectively.
On Monday, Southwest, which experienced an operating meltdown over the holidays, canceled about 12% of its schedule. American canceled 6% of its flights. Across all airlines, more than 1,100 flights were canceled on Monday, with more than 6,000 delays.
On Monday, Southwest Airlines issued winter weather waivers across dozens of airports in Texas, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Arkansas and Kentucky. The waiver applies to affected travel between 30 January and 1 February.
American Airlines issued a waiver Sunday for Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) that applies to travel from January 29 to February 2.
DFW Airport tweeted on Tuesday that it was well prepared for the winter weather: “The airport’s runways, roads, bridges and footpaths have been used and will continue to handle any potential icing to ensure safety.”
A Winter Storm Warning is in effect for much of Texas, including the Dallas-Fort Worth area, until 6 a.m. Central Time on Thursday, February 2.
The largest accumulation of ice is expected across large portions of Texas, which could see anywhere from one to three-quarters of an inch through Thursday morning. A quarter inch of ice is possible across a wide swath of the region, including southern Oklahoma, Arkansas, northwest Mississippi, and parts of Tennessee.
“I encourage Arkansas residents experiencing winter weather to avoid travel if possible, and heed warnings from local officials,” Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders wrote on Twitter Monday.
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