US: Flights halted at both Houston airports, cancellations near 4,000

Flights have been grounded at both of Houston's busy airports as Hurricane Harvey's remnants snarled airline schedules in Texas for a second consecutive day Sunday. Already, hundreds of cancellations extended into Monday and a few dozen more into Tuesday. All big US airlines were waiving change fees for travellers ticketed to fly to the region. Nationwide, airlines had grounded 1,675 flights as of 1 p.m. ET Sunday. The bulk of those came in Houston and at other Texas airports, many preemptively cancelled sometime on Saturday. Sunday’s problems marked the second consecutive day of severe flight disruptions in the region. More than 1,100 flights were grounded across the US on Saturday, most because of Harvey. It could be days before airline schedules return to normal. Already on Monday, more than 900 flights had been preemptively canceled as of 1 p.m. ET. Combined with about 200 cancellations from Friday and another 44 already axed on Tuesday, about 4,000 flights have been grounded nationwide since Friday – with most attributable to Harvey. Houston’s busy Bush Intercontinental and Hobby airports were saddled with delays and cancellations before flights were halted altogether by Sunday.<br/>