Airlines cancel hundreds of weekend flights as thunderstorms sweep through Florida

Airlines canceled hundreds of weekend flights and thousands more were delayed as thunderstorms in Florida slowed traffic in one of the country’s top travel destinations during spring break. More than 6,000 US flights were delayed and 1,930 were canceled on Saturday, according to flight-tracking site FlightAware. Disruptions continue on Sunday with nearly 1,540 canceled and more than twice that number of delays, though Monday schedules appeared to stabilize. Thunderstorms are especially challenging for airlines because they are harder to predict and plan for compared with other weather like winter storms and hurricanes, during which airlines often cancel flights hours if not days in advance. Disruptions due to storms tend to cascade because crews and planes are left out of position for their assignments. Southwest canceled 520 flights, or 14% of its Saturday schedule, and had 1,512 delays or 43% of scheduled flights, according to FlightAware. About 400 flights, 10% of Southwest’s Sunday schedule, were canceled and another 25%, more than 900, were delayed. Before the storms sparked delays in Florida, the airline had briefly paused departures early in the day to perform checks on a backend system that it had reset as part of regular maintenance overnight. Those systems are used for tasks including pre-departure paperwork. Southwest said some of its crew members couldn’t find hotel rooms amid the disruptions, something crews complained about last year. “With widespread cancellations in the midst of a busy travel season, hotel rooms were unavailable in a few cities, and late day Crew timeouts in those cities meant that some Crew Members were left without rooms,” Southwest said in a note to crews on Sunday. “We take that shortfall seriously and are working to follow up with affected crew members.” Story has more. <br/>