Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy mentioned the Federal Aviation Administration wants two extra days to totally get better from the vital flight disruptions that came visiting the weekend as a result of large winter storm that swept throughout the nation.
In an interview Monday on CNBC’s “Squawk Field,” Duffy mentioned the FAA is concentrating on Wednesday because the day it hopes flights will return to regular.
“This storm is exclusive,” Duffy mentioned. “You get the ice and also you get the snow and, on prime of that, we’ve got now a chilly climate snap that comes after it. … So it makes it more difficult to navigate the ice that is going during the last three days.”
Sunday marked the most important flight cancellation day since early 2020, when the Covid pandemic hit. Airways canceled greater than 15,000 U.S. flights over the weekend, in line with flight monitoring web site FlightAware, as a lot of the nation was lined in snow and ice.
A flight info board in Terminal B at LaGuardia Airport (LGA) throughout a winter storm within the Queens borough of New York, US, on Sunday, Jan. 25, 2026.
Michael Nagle | Bloomberg | Getty Photos
Duffy mentioned the “large disruption” was persevering with Monday because the U.S. Division of Transportation offers with the fallout of the storm, with greater than 4,000 flight cancellations for the day and almost 10,000 delays. These disruptions come because the FAA focuses on salting and clearing runways whereas coping with decrease staffing as a result of commuting is tough for employees, Duffy added.
There are 102 U.S. cancellations to date for Tuesday, in line with FlightAware, lower than 1% of the quantity canceled over the weekend.
“We’ll have extra capability as we come again to a full working schedule,” Duffy mentioned. “So you may count on extra full planes, extra full flights as you fly this week, simply as persons are going to their locations. However once more, Wednesday is our goal date to get again to regular.”
Greater than 2,700 flights are canceled on the one of many three main New York Metropolis space airports, LaGuardia, as lethal Winter Storm Fern hit the Tri-State Space in New York, United States on January 25, 2026.
Selcuk Acar | Anadolu | Getty Photos
Airways routinely cancel flights forward of a significant storm to ensure that planes, passengers and crew do not get stranded, which may make disruptions even worse after extreme climate clears. January is a off-season for journey, however the large winter storm was affecting journey for lots of of hundreds of individuals.
A number of air carriers, together with American Airways, Delta Air Strains, JetBlue Airways, Southwest Airways and United Airways, mentioned they’re waiving cancellation charges for purchasers to rebook.
The winter storm cancellations come simply weeks after elements of the Caribbean airspace have been closed following the U.S. assaults in Venezuela.
— CNBC’s Leslie Josephs contributed to this report.
