Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the Federal Aviation Administration needs two more days to fully recover from the weekend’s major disruptions caused by the massive winter storm that hit the United States.
In an interview Monday on CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” Duffy said the FAA is targeting Wednesday as the day it hopes air travel will return to normal.
“This storm is unique,” Duffy said. “We’ve got ice, we’ve got snow, and then we’ve got a big cold snap. … So that’s making it even more difficult to navigate through the ice that’s been going on for the last three days.”
Sunday was the biggest day of flight cancellations since the start of the coronavirus pandemic in early 2020. Airlines canceled more than 15,000 U.S. flights over the weekend as much of the country was covered in snow and ice, according to aviation tracking website FlightAware.
A flight information board in Terminal B at LaGuardia Airport (LGA) during a winter storm on Sunday, January 25, 2026 in Queens, New York, USA.
Michael Nagle | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Duffy said “massive disruption” continued Monday as the U.S. Department of Transportation dealt with the effects of the storm, with more than 4,000 flights canceled and nearly 10,000 delayed that day. The disruption comes as the FAA focuses on salting and cleaning runways while also dealing with layoffs as workers have difficulty commuting, Duffy added.
There have been about 250 U.S. cancellations so far Tuesday, a significant drop from the weekend, according to FlightAware.
“We will be back to a full schedule of operations and will have even more capacity,” Duffy said. “So as people get on planes this week as they head to their destinations, we expect to see more planes filling up and more flights operating. But again, Wednesday is the target date to get back to normal.”
Deadly winter storm Fern hit the New York City tri-state area in the United States on January 25, 2026, causing more than 2,700 flight cancellations at LaGuardia Airport, one of the three major airports in the New York City area.
Selcuk Achar | Anadolu | Getty Images
Airlines routinely cancel flights before major storms to avoid stranding planes, passengers, and crew, but disruptions can become even worse after the bad weather improves. January is a slow month for travel, but a major winter storm affected travel for hundreds of thousands of people.
multiple airlines american airlines, delta airlines, jet blue airlines, southwest airlines and united airlineshas announced that it will waive cancellation fees for customers who rebook.
The Winter Storm cancellation comes just weeks after parts of Caribbean airspace were closed following the U.S. attack on Venezuela.
—CNBC’s Leslie Josephs contributed to this report.
