Airlines cancel more than 3,000 flights on Monday, a busy holiday travel day.

This is supposed to be a year of revival for airlines. It’s off to a rough start. The industry ended an already messy holiday season with thousands more flight cancellations as companies struggled to deal with bad weather and keep planes and airports staffed because of a surge in coronavirus infections. More than 8,000 flights in the United States were canceled from Saturday through Monday, affecting more than one in 10 scheduled flights, according to FlightAware, a tracking service. “We had a series of punches that really knocked the industry to the ground,” said Henry Harteveldt, president of Atmosphere Research Group, a research firm that specializes in the travel industry. The recent cancellations were caused by storms that produced heavy snowfall in the Midwest over the weekend and over the eastern United States on Monday, the worst day of the holiday season with more than 3,000 canceled flights. Southwest and SkyWest Airlines, which operates regional flights for several major carriers, were responsible for about a third of all cancellations over the weekend and Monday. “Our planners continue their work to anticipate operational challenges today following the winter storm that moved across the country over the weekend, creating a band of heavy winter weather affecting the Baltimore/D.C. area Monday morning,” Southwest said. The airline has a big hub at Baltimore/Washington International Airport.<br/>