Bad weather, COVID-19 surge spur flight delays, cancellations at Kennedy, LaGuardia

Nearly 1,500 flights were canceled or delayed Sunday at Kennedy, LaGuardia and Liberty airports, according to FlightAware.com, as the COVID-19 surge and bad weather continued to snarl holiday travel nationwide.

A combined 394 arrivals and departures at the three metropolitan area airports were canceled and another 1,100 delayed as of about 7:30 p.m. Sunday, according to the flight-tracking website.

Across the United States, 2,595 flights were canceled Sunday, as many holiday travelers tried to get home before work and school resumed Monday.

The flight disruptions continued an unfortunate pattern at play for travelers over the past week. More than 14,000 flights have been canceled since Dec. 24 as airlines say COVID-19 infections, many stemming from the omicron variant, have resulted in staffing shortages. Wintry weather exacerbated flight issues.

Sunday's cancellations, so far, were below the week's peak of 2,749 on Saturday, according to FlightAware.

Newark Liberty International Airport, which ranked third for most arrival flight disruptions of all U.S. and international airports Sunday evening, had 150 cancellations and 491 delays.

At Kennedy, 110 flights were canceled and 289 delayed. LaGuardia saw 134 flights canceled and 320 delayed.

Islip’s MacArthur Airport in Ronkonkoma had five cancellations, according to FlightAware.

O’Hare Airport in Chicago, which had a major snowstorm this weekend, had the most cancellations: 554. Denver, where a wildfire in a suburban area destroyed nearly 1,000 buildings, ranked second for flight disruptions.

SkyWest, which operates under American Eagle, Delta Connection and United Express, was the worst-hit airline, with 546 cancellations Sunday, or about 22% of flights, according to FlightAware.

"We continue to experience the impact of weather and the omicron variant across several SkyWest hubs, and have proactively canceled a significant number of flights due to the weekend’s weather in Chicago, Denver, and Detroit," SkyWest said in a statement. "Our teams are working nonstop to minimize impact to customers and crew."

Southwest, which has large operations in Chicago, had 429 cancellations, or about 11% of flights.

JetBlue, Delta, American Airlines and United saw more than 100 cancellations each.

With Darwin Yanes

By Rachelle Blidner

rachelle.blidner@newsday.com@rachelleblidner

Rachelle Blidner covers Suffolk County government, politics and breaking news.