Storm adds uncertainty to strong holiday travel demand

Concerns about illness or inflation aren't stopping Americans from hitting the roads and airports this holiday season, but a massive winter storm might.

Forecasters predict an onslaught of heavy snow, ice, flooding and powerful winds from Thursday to Saturday in a broad swath of the country, from the Plains and Midwest to the East Coast.

A surge of Arctic air will follow. The Christmas weekend could be the coldest in decades.

The National Weather Service said Wednesday the storm was so large and encompassing that around 190 million people are currently under some type of winter weather advisory.

Southwest Airlines said it has cancelled 500 of its 4,000 scheduled flights on Thursday and Friday. The company said it wanted to maintain safe operations for both passengers and crew.

At least 145 flights into or out of Denver International Airport were cancelled Wednesday as the city was hit with snow, gusty winds and freezing temperatures, according to FlightAware, a flight tracking company.

At least 219 flights into or out of Denver were expected to be cancelled Thursday.

FlightAware was also expecting at least 364 flights to be cancelled Thursday at O'Hare and Midway airports in Chicago.

Earlier this week, those two airports said they had 350 pieces of snow removal equipment and 400,000 gallons of pavement de-icing fluid on hand for the storm.

Delta, American, United, Frontier, Alaska, Southwest and other airlines were waiving change fees and offering travellers the option of choosing new flights to avoid the bad weather.

As of late Wednesday, Amtrak had cancelled train service on around 30 routes, some through December 25.

Greyhound cancelled bus service on 25 routes for Wednesday and Thursday, including service from Las Vegas to Denver, Denver to St. Louis and Chicago to Minneapolis, Memphis and Nashville.

The weather added uncertainty to what was expected to be a busy travel season. Earlier this month, AAA estimated that nearly 113 million people would travel 50 miles from home or more between December 23 and January 2.

That's four per cent higher than last year, although still short of the record 119 million in 2019.

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