Canceled Flights Pile Up as Major Storm Threatens Eastern US

Kenny Hamblin (L) and Andrew Watts with the Roanoke Parks and Recreation Department shovel snow on the Martin Luther King bridge on First Street and Salem Avenue as snow falls Friday morning in Roanoke, Va., on Jan. 22, 2016. A blizzard menacing the Eastern United States started dumping snow in Virginia, Tennessee and other parts of the South on Friday as millions of people in the storm's path prepared for icy roads, possible power outages and other treacherous conditions. (Stephanie Klein-Davis/The Roanoke Times via AP)

NEW YORK—Airlines canceled 2,800 flights Friday to, from or within the U.S., as a blizzard swings up the East Coast, according to flight tracking service FlightAware.

The bulk of Friday’s cancelations are in Charlotte and Raleigh, North Carolina. Another 3,200 flights were canceled for Saturday. Those cancelations center on Philadelphia, Washington, and New York, with airlines essentially shutting down all flights into those cities.

George Morris with Standard Parking works on clearing an entrance to airport parking as snow falls Friday morning, Jan. 22, 2016. A blizzard menacing the Eastern United States started dumping snow in Virginia, Tennessee and other parts of the South on Friday as millions of people in the storm's path prepared for icy roads, possible power outages and other treacherous conditions. (Stephanie Klein-Davis/The Roanoke Times via AP)

By Sunday afternoon, however, the airlines hope to be back to a full schedule to handle the typical influx of business travelers heading out to start a week on the road.

Overall, the airlines have canceled about 12 percent of their scheduled flights in the U.S. for Friday and Saturday.

One bit of good news: Saturday is the slowest travel day of the week. There are a little more than 22,000flights scheduled to, from or within the U.S., according to FlightAware. That’s about 5,000 fewer flights — and 400,000 fewer passengers — than on Thursday or Friday.

Taylor Mushtare scrapes ice and snow from her car in Old Southwest Roanoke, Va., on Jan. 22, 2016.
(Heather Rousseau/The Roanoke Times via AP)