Storms add to thousands of canceled U.S. flights during shutdown

After a late-February partial government shutdown began to spill over into airport operations, Monday brought a second wave of disruption for travelers: powerful storms swept across the eastern half of the U.S., and flight cancellations and delays surged alongside weather-related restrictions. The Associated Press reported that the disruptions affected travel for people heading to spring break destinations and college basketball tournaments, including March Madness.

Flight-tracking site FlightAware, as cited by AP, reported that more than 4,400 flights scheduled to fly into, out of, or within the U.S. were canceled on Monday, while roughly 10,400 other flights were delayed. For Tuesday, FlightAware said nearly 290 flights scheduled for the day had been canceled.

The disruptions piled up at major hubs, including airports serving New York, Chicago and Atlanta, according to the report. FlightAware data cited by AP showed about 570 cancellations in and out of Chicago O’Hare International, more than 430 at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International, and over 270 at John F. Kennedy International Airport.

Earlier Monday, citing severe weather, the Federal Aviation Administration ordered ground stops at Hartsfield-Jackson and Charlotte Douglas International Airport and imposed ground delays at JFK and Newark Liberty International Airport, according to AP. The storms were described as part of a system that brought heavy snow across the Midwest and raced toward the East Coast, with the potential for high winds and tornadoes, the National Weather Service warned.

For travelers already dealing with shifting itineraries, the timing of cancellations proved difficult to manage. Kelly Price, trying to get home to Colorado after a family vacation in Orlando, Florida, said her Sunday night flight wasn’t canceled until early Monday. She told reporters outside the Atlanta airport that the family’s next available booking would not leave until Tuesday afternoon.

AP also reported that unions and airport security workers highlighted the strain from the shutdown that affects airport screening. The report said the current partial government shutdown affects only the Department of Homeland Security, which includes the Transportation Security Administration, and that TSA workers missed their first full paycheck over the weekend.

At a news conference outside Hartsfield-Jackson, Aaron Barker, president of AMG local 550, said TSA workers should be paid like other government workers who are still receiving pay during the partial shutdown. Barker and other union supporters raised concerns about the financial pressure on TSA personnel, while travelers reported spending more than planned for hotels and changing routes to avoid missed connections.

Danielle Cash told AP she found herself stranded in St. Louis on Sunday while trying to get home to Tampa, Florida, after a weekend girls’ trip to Las Vegas. She said she is now spending several hundred dollars more than planned on a hotel room in a snowy city she said she wasn’t dressed for, and that she had booked a flight taking her to Tennessee before returning to Tampa on Tuesday afternoon.

Beyond cancellations and rebookings, the report described how security staffing shortfalls can affect wait times at checkpoints. Some airports reported longer security lines because of staffing shortages, with TSA workers taking second jobs, struggling to afford gas to get to work, or leaving the profession, AP said, citing Homeland Security statements that more than 300 TSA agents have quit since the start of the shutdown.

TSA union leaders in Atlanta warned at Monday’s news conference that travelers could face increasingly long wait times as the shutdown continues. Even so, AP said union leaders reported that many officers were still reporting to work despite mounting financial strain; Aaron Barker described TSA workers “coping with eviction notices, vehicle repossessions, empty refrigerators and overdrawn bank accounts,” and supporters held signs reading “We want a paycheck, not a rain check.”

The airport travel disruption also played out through specific outreach to passengers on social media. Louis Armstrong International Airport said on X that travelers flying out of New Orleans on Sunday and Monday should arrive at least three hours early due to impacts from the federal government’s partial shutdown, AP reported. The report said the airport in Austin, Texas, shared a video on X taken at 5:30 a.m. local time showing the security line spilling out onto the sidewalk outside.

Back in Atlanta, Mel Stewart and his wife arrived four hours earlier than usual for their flight out of Hartsfield-Jackson to make up for longer TSA lines, AP reported. Stewart said the shutdown had been “politicized way too much,” adding that TSA personnel were working and that “for TSA people not to get paid, that’s silly.”