New year brings more canceled flights for air travelers

By DAVID KOENIG
AP Airlines Writer

The new year is bringing more of the same old misery that air travelers in the United States have been enduring for more than a week. Airlines are blaming wintry weather and high numbers of sickouts due to the rising number of COVID-19 infections around the country. According to tracking service FlightAware, more than 2,600 U.S. flights and nearly 4,600 worldwide had been canceled by late Saturday afternoon. That’s the highest single-day toll yet since just before Christmas, when airlines began blaming staffing shortages on increasing COVID-19 infections among crews. But weather, not the virus, was the culprit in Chicago, where Southwest Airlines suspended flights because of the grim forecast.