US: Airlines cancel nearly 1,600 flights as Matthew nears

Flight cancellations have begun to pile up as Hurricane Matthew continues its track toward the US coastline. As of 9 p.m. ET on Wednesday, airlines had canceled nearly 1,600 flights -- many preemptively -- through Friday in anticipation of the storm, according to flight-tracking service FlightAware.com. That total could grow depending on the storm's path. Among the 1,594 cancellations already reported, 124 were Wednesday in the US, Bahamas and Haiti, according to FlightAware. The most cancellations were in Miami with 51 and Nassau with 43. Among the 1,070 cancelled for Thursday, the most are at Miami with 512 and Fort Lauderdale with 287, according to FlightAware. The airlines most affected are American with 477 and Southwest with 145. "We expect the number of flight cancellations for (Thursday) and Friday to rise depending on how much Florida is impacted by the storm," said Daniel Baker, CEO of FlightAware. American Airlines, which operates one of its busiest hubs at Miami International, has suspended all of its arrivals there on Thursday. It says there will be "limited" departures there up to noon ET, but that all flights will be halted after that.<br/>