Air Travel Returns to Normal by Wednesday
- Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said teh Federal Aviation Administration needs two more days to fully recover from the notable flight disruptions that came over the weekend due to...
- In an interview Monday on CNBC's "squawk Box," Duffy said the FAA is targeting Wednesday as the day it hopes flights will return to normal.
- "You get the ice and you get the snow and, on top of that, we have now a cold weather snap that comes after it.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said teh Federal Aviation Administration needs two more days to fully recover from the notable flight disruptions that came over the weekend due to the massive winter storm that swept across the country.
In an interview Monday on CNBC’s “squawk Box,” Duffy said the FAA is targeting Wednesday as the day it hopes flights will return to normal.
“This storm is unique,” Duffy said. “You get the ice and you get the snow and, on top of that, we have now a cold weather snap that comes after it. … So it makes it more challenging to navigate the ice that’s going over the last three days.”
sunday marked the largest flight cancellation day since early 2020, when the Covid pandemic hit.Airlines canceled more than 15,000 U.S. flights over the weekend, according to flight tracking website flightaware, as much of the country was covered in snow and ice.
A flight data board in Terminal B at LaGuardia Airport (LGA) during a winter storm in the Queens borough of New York,US,on sunday,Jan. 25, 2026.
Michael Nagle | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Duffy said the “massive disruption” was continuing Monday as the U.S. Department of Transportation deals with the fallout of the storm, with more than 4,000 flight cancellations for the day and nearly 10,000 delays. Those disruptions come as the FAA focuses on salting and clearing runways while dealing with lower staffing as commuting is difficult for workers, Duffy added.
there where roughly 250 U.S. cancellations so far for Tuesday, according to FlightAware, a significant drop from the weekend.
“We’re going to have more capacity as we come back to a full running schedule,” Duffy said.”So you’ll expect more full planes,more full flights as you fly this week,just as people are going to thier destinations. But again, Wednesday is our target date to get back to normal.”