A powerful winter storm sweeping across the United States has brought major disruption to air travel, grounding flights domestically and affecting transatlantic services.
According to aviation data from Cirium, on 25 January nearly 9,516 flights departing and arriving in the US were cancelled, while UK–US services saw almost 50% of scheduled flights cancelled in both directions—52 departures and 54 arrivals from UK airports were scrubbed. On 26 January (so far), at least 17 UK–US departures and 10 arrivals have been lost as conditions deteriorate. Cirium figures show the cancellation rate remains elevated as the storm’s impact persists.
The US network-wide disruption reflects one of the worst weather-related aviation events in recent years. Flight-tracking services reported that more than 11,000 US flights were cancelled on Sunday alone—a figure approaching historic levels—and thousands more were delayed, with cancellations expected to continue as the storm moves through much of the country.
Major hubs from the Northeast to the Southeast and Midwest faced particularly heavy impacts, with airports such as Ronald Reagan Washington National, Philadelphia International and New York-area airports reporting high cancellation rates. Airlines warned passengers to expect abrupt schedule changes, with flexible rebooking and waivers in place as operations struggled to stabilise.
The severe weather has also had broader effects on infrastructure and transport, with widespread power outages reported and emergency declarations issued in multiple states.
Airlines and airports continue to work to recover schedules, but airline networks are experiencing cascading delays and cancellations as crews and aircraft are displaced by the widespread disruption.