Air travel across the United States was thrown into disarray on Sunday, January 25, 2026, as a powerful winter storm sliced across the Southern Plains, Midwest, and East Coast, triggering more than 10,000 flight cancellations nationwide and snarling operations at some of the country’s most important hubs.

Dallas–Fort Worth International Airport emerged as one of the hardest hit, with more than 1,000 cancellations and a particularly heavy toll on American Airlines and its regional partners, while disruptions rippled through Atlanta, Denver, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and scores of other airports.

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DFW Becomes the Epicenter of a National Air Travel Meltdown

Dallas–Fort Worth International Airport, the primary hub for American Airlines, bore the brunt of the storm’s aviation impact. By Sunday afternoon, data from flight tracking services showed roughly 900 to 1,000 flights canceled at DFW alone, representing a substantial share of the airport’s daily schedule and contributing significantly to the national tally. Nearby Dallas Love Field added well over 100 additional cancellations, as icy precipitation, freezing rain, and subfreezing temperatures made safe operations challenging.

Combined across the two North Texas airports on Sunday, cancellations surged past 1,100, affecting American, Delta, United, Spirit, Frontier, and other carriers. Many of these flights were scrubbed preemptively as meteorologists warned of a prolonged period of sleet, snow, and ice that would complicate deicing operations and create hazardous conditions on runways and taxiways. The strategy, while disruptive in the short term, was designed to prevent aircraft and crews from being stranded out of position once the worst of the storm moved through.

At DFW, American Airlines and its regional affiliates Envoy Air and PSA Airlines accounted for the majority of cancellations. The carrier had already slashed hundreds of departures for Saturday and Sunday in anticipation of the storm, cutting deeper into its schedule as conditions deteriorated. Departures boards on Sunday morning showed long stretches of red as hour after hour of flights were marked canceled, leaving thousands of travelers searching for alternatives.

Big Airlines Slash Schedules as Winter Operations Strain Networks

The impact extended far beyond Dallas. Across the U.S. system, American, Delta, United, Southwest, JetBlue, Spirit, and Frontier all implemented aggressive cuts to their weekend schedules. By midday Sunday, American had canceled more than 1,400 flights, representing roughly 40 to 45 percent of its planned operations for the day. Delta and Southwest each reported around 1,000 to 1,200 cancellations, while United’s tally climbed past 800. Ultra low cost and hybrid carriers, including Spirit, Frontier, and JetBlue, scrubbed hundreds more flights, magnifying the disruption for budget-conscious travelers.

For network carriers, the concentration of cancellations at key hubs such as Dallas–Fort Worth, Atlanta, Denver, and major East Coast airports meant that the storm’s effects extended well beyond the immediate weather zone. Even cities experiencing calmer conditions faced knock-on delays and cancellations as aircraft and crew rotations broke down. A canceled early-morning departure from DFW or Atlanta often meant that downstream flights later in the day in places like Phoenix, Los Angeles, or Las Vegas never left the gate.

Airlines defended their decision to pre-cancel flights, arguing that proactive cuts reduce chaos and support a faster recovery once conditions improve. By thinning the schedule ahead of time, carriers can concentrate ground resources on the remaining flights, prioritize safety during deicing and runway treatments, and avoid trapping passengers on aircraft or in remote outstations. However, for travelers caught in the disruption, the end result was the same: long holds on customer service lines, crowded terminals, and limited rebooking options on already full flights.

Atlanta, Denver, Los Angeles, Phoenix and More Feel the Ripple Effects

While North Texas faced some of the worst icing and freezing rain, other major hubs across the country experienced their own share of turmoil as the storm system marched east and interacted with frigid air already in place. In Atlanta, the world’s busiest passenger airport and a critical hub for Delta, hundreds of flights were canceled over the weekend. Icy conditions across parts of Georgia and the Southeast led to a significant reduction in operations as the carrier consolidated departures and arrivals.

Denver International Airport, a key hub for United and a major connecting point for traffic across the Rockies and Plains, saw delays and cancellations build as the storm delivered bursts of snow and gusty winds. Runway clearing operations and deicing caused rolling delays that cascaded into cancellations, particularly for regional flights operating with tighter performance margins and narrower scheduling windows.

Farther west and south, where conditions were less severe but still affected by the broader system, airports in Los Angeles and Phoenix reported increasing numbers of delayed and canceled flights tied to aircraft and crews that never arrived from Dallas, Denver, or Midwest cities. Passengers checking departure boards in Los Angeles and Phoenix on Sunday were often surprised to see their flights scrubbed due to “weather” in a city hundreds or even thousands of miles away, illustrating how tightly interconnected modern airline networks have become.

Storm Fern Brings Near Record Flight Cancellations and Widespread Power Outages

The aviation disruption unfolded against the backdrop of a broader weather emergency. Winter Storm Fern, as named by private meteorologists, spread snow, sleet, and bitterly cold air across more than 30 states from the Southern Rockies through the Plains and into the Mid Atlantic and Northeast. By Sunday, more than 10,000 flights scheduled for that day alone had been canceled, with total cancellations since Saturday topping 14,000 and still climbing into Monday, according to multiple aviation analytics firms.

At the same time, more than one million customers across Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, and other states were left without power as ice accumulated on power lines, transformers, and tree limbs. Utilities in Tennessee and along the lower Mississippi Valley reported severe infrastructure damage, while officials in numerous states urged residents to stay off the roads. The widespread outages and dangerous wind chills added urgency for travelers trying to leave or reach affected areas, making air travel disruptions even more consequential.

Meteorologists with the National Weather Service said that by late Sunday nearly 300 million people were under some form of winter weather advisory, warning, or cold alert. They highlighted the combination of heavy snow, sleet, and freezing rain as particularly hazardous, especially in regions that lack extensive snow removal equipment and where drivers and airport ground crews are less accustomed to sustained winter operations.

Travel Waivers, Fee Flexibility, and What Passengers Can Expect

As the scale of the storm became clear late last week, major airlines began issuing broad travel waivers to give customers more flexibility and to encourage voluntary rebooking before the worst of the weather arrived. American, Delta, United, Southwest, JetBlue, Spirit, Frontier, and others all rolled out policies allowing passengers scheduled to fly through dozens of affected airports, including Dallas–Fort Worth, Dallas Love Field, Atlanta, Charlotte, Houston, New York, Philadelphia, and Washington area airports, to change flights without incurring standard fees.

Delta’s Southern Plains and Southeast winter storm advisory, issued Friday, explicitly listed Dallas–Fort Worth, Dallas Love Field, Atlanta, and a long roster of Southern and Mid Atlantic cities where customers could rebook travel between January 23 and 26 without a change fee and, in many cases, without paying additional fare differences if staying within the same cabin and travel window. Other carriers adopted similar policies, with some extending flexibility to basic economy tickets that are normally more restrictive.

For passengers whose flights were canceled outright, U.S. Department of Transportation rules require airlines to provide a full refund upon request, even on nonrefundable tickets. However, many travelers instead opted to accept rebooking, travel credits, or alternative routings as they tried to salvage weekend plans. Airline agents and call centers were quickly overwhelmed by the volume of itinerary changes, and social media filled with reports of travelers waiting hours to speak to a representative or secure a seat on the next available flight.

Ground Operations Struggle with Ice, Cold, and Safety Constraints

On the ground at DFW and other affected hubs, the storm tested the limits of winter-weather preparedness. Airport authorities in Dallas said crews were working around the clock to treat runways, taxiways, bridges, and access roads with deicing chemicals and sand, deploying fleets of specialized vehicles to keep surfaces as clear as possible. Even with intensive preparation, persistent freezing rain and sleet meant that cleared surfaces could quickly become slick again, forcing operations teams to repeatedly cycle through treatment routines.

Aircraft deicing, a critical step in maintaining safety during winter operations, emerged as another choke point. With temperatures hovering below freezing and precipitation ongoing, airlines had to carefully sequence deicing so that aircraft could take off within strict time windows after treatment. Any delay in departure could require a second deicing cycle, tying up equipment and crews and further constraining the number of flights that could safely depart in a given hour.

Airport and airline officials stressed that safety considerations would continue to override schedule pressures. They encouraged passengers to monitor their flight status frequently, build in extra time for travel to and from the airport, and prepare for the possibility of extended waits in terminals as the storm moved through and recovery efforts began.

Network Disruptions Likely to Linger for Days

Industry analysts warned that the disruption caused by the storm, particularly at mega hubs like Dallas–Fort Worth and Atlanta, could take several days to fully resolve. The sweeping cancellations over the weekend created a backlog of displaced passengers and mispositioned aircraft, with some planes and crews stuck at secondary airports far from where they were scheduled to start the workweek.

Even after conditions improve and runways and taxiways are fully cleared, airlines must carefully rebuild schedules, reassign crews within federally mandated duty limits, and reposition aircraft to their intended routes. That process often results in residual delays and additional short-notice cancellations on Monday and Tuesday, particularly on less frequent routes or late-night and early-morning departures.

Travelers booked on flights through the coming week, especially those connecting through Dallas–Fort Worth, Atlanta, Denver, or major East Coast airports, were advised to keep a close eye on their reservations. Many carriers signaled that they would continue to offer fee waivers for changes tied to the storm and urged passengers with flexible plans to consider pushing their trips later into the week to ease congestion during the recovery phase.

What This Storm Reveals About the Fragility of U.S. Air Travel

The latest mass disruption, coming on the heels of other large-scale events in recent years, underscored how vulnerable the U.S. air travel system remains to extreme weather at a handful of major hubs. With airlines operating tight schedules and high load factors, there is limited slack in the system when a storm shuts down or greatly restricts operations at airports like Dallas–Fort Worth or Atlanta that serve as central nodes for national networks.

When more than 1,000 flights are canceled at a single hub in a day, travelers across the country feel the effects. A family flying from Phoenix to Orlando, a business traveler going from Los Angeles to Boston, or an international passenger connecting through Dallas from Latin America to Europe can all find their plans disrupted by the same weather system. As climate variability contributes to more frequent and intense storms, airlines, airports, and regulators are increasingly debating how to build more resilience into schedules and infrastructure without sacrificing efficiency.

For now, travelers caught up in Winter Storm Fern’s far-reaching impacts are focused on more immediate concerns: finding an available seat, securing a place to stay if stranded, and navigating long lines and complex rebookings. At Dallas–Fort Worth and across the country, the storm turned what should have been a routine winter weekend of travel into one of the most challenging operational periods since the pandemic, leaving passengers, crews, and airlines alike looking for clearer skies in the days ahead.