Over 1,500 flights cancelled as winter storm Devin hits US holiday travel

According to airline monitoring website FlightAware, thousands of flights have been canceled and delayed in the United States as a result of winter storm Devin, which has affected air travel during the busiest of the holidays.

As of 4 p.m. eastern time (21:00 GMT) on Friday, 1, 581 flights “within, into, or out of the” US were cancelled and 6, 883 were delayed, according to FlightAware, which claims to be the largest flight tracking data provider in the world.

The US National Weather Service issued the warning about winter storm Devin, which would “hazardous travel conditions” and would result in heavy snowfall in parts of the Midwest and northeast.

On Friday, more than 40 million Americans were subject to weather advisories or winter storm warnings, and another 30 million were Californians who were subject to flood or storm advisories because of a slew of rains from an alleged atmospheric river.

The largest US city, New York City, was expecting 250mm (10 inches) of snow overnight on Friday, which was the most accumulation in four years. An Arctic blast is expected to swoop down from Canada, and temperatures were forecast to drop into the weekend.

Travelers were warned of possible delays or cancellations by New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport, Newark Liberty International Airport, and LaGuardia Airport. These three airports, in the opinion of FlightAware, caused more than half of the flight cancellations and delays.

The most recent US carrier to cancel 225 flights was JetBlue Airways, which was closely followed by Delta Air Lines, which had 212. 147 flights were canceled by Republic Airways, 97 by United Airlines, and 146 by American Airlines.

A JetBlue spokesperson told the Reuters news agency that “Due to winter storm Devin, JetBlue has cancelled approximately 350 flights today and tomorrow, primarily in the Northeast where JetBlue has a significant operation.”

Southern California experienced the wettest Christmas season in 54 years thanks to powerful winter storms that struck the US West Coast.

Despite slackening rain in the area of Los Angeles, there was still a chance of more flash flooding and mudslides on Friday, according to the National Weather Service.