US: 'Luck might have finally run out' for holiday air travelers

Winter certainly is arriving with a bang in the United States. An arctic blast and bomb cyclone will push through most of the country as the season officially starts, and that's bound to bring disruptions for millions of holiday travelers. In fact, just over 1,000 Thursday flights within, into or out of the US had already been canceled by 7:50 p.m. ET Wednesday, according to data from flight tracking site FlightAware. US air travelers had a decent run of it over the July Fourth, Labor Day and Thanksgiving holidays with largely favorable weather conditions. But it appears we're in for a different story for Christmas. Scott Keyes, founder of discount travel site Scott's Cheap Flights, said that "our luck might have finally run out." That huge winter storm, what the National Weather Service is calling a "once in a generation type event," is delivering deadly cold, possible blizzards and a proverbial lump of coal in our travel stockings. And it's all coinciding with a travel season that's returning to crowded, nearly pre-pandemic levels.<br/>AAA, the auto and travel membership club, expects nearly 113m people to travel over the end-of-year holiday period. The number of travelers expected to fly -- 7.2m -- is just shy of 2019's 7.3m. And when you factor in that airlines are operating fewer flights that are more crowded, there's serious potential for a serious mess.<br/>