Bad weather in Texas causes flight cancellations and delays at airports, including Sacramento

Severe weather in Texas forced officials at one of the nation’s largest airports to suspend flights, affecting air traffic between Sacramento and the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

Parts of North Texas continued to face severe storms Tuesday, including thunderstorms and the risk of flash flooding, a day after a tornado wreaked havoc in Denton and Cooke counties just to the north cities. At least seven people were killed and at least 100 people were injured, Texas Governor Greg Abbott said. Rain totals from the storm had already reached 3 inches in some places, while more than half a million around the Metroplex were without power as of noon central time, officials said.

Officials at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, the world’s second busiest by passenger volume, decided Monday morning to suspend flights for several hours due to bad weather, triggering a cascade of cancellations and of delays across the country, including at Sacramento International Airport. .

“With a severe storm in the area this morning, passengers should check their flight status with their airline as delays are likely,” the airport said in a social media post. “Please use caution if traveling to/from the airport this morning with strong winds and rain affecting travel.”

Flights were also suspended for a time at Love Field in Dallas.

According to flight tracking website FlightAware, more than 200 flights to or from DFW and DAL had been canceled as of noon Pacific Time, with nearly 450 flights delayed. The disruptions were about evenly split between departures and arrivals, according to FlightAware. Several cancellations and delays also affected Houston’s two commercial airports: William Hobby and Bush Intercontinental.

Most of the disruptions occurred between two of the Dallas area’s largest airlines: American and Southwest. According to FlightAware, the two airlines suffered the most cancellations and delays: As of 1 p.m. Pacific, American had nearly 190 cancellations across the United States while Southwest had more than 260 flights suspended. Cancellations made up about 6% of the airlines’ total flights for the day, according to FlightAware, and each airline had more than 700 cancellations across its networks.

That included flights from Sacramento, where five flights from SMF — three from Southwest and two from American — were canceled and another 34 flights were delayed Monday, according to FlightAware. Twenty-two of the delayed flights were on Southwest, whose flagship hub is at Love Field. DFW, located between Dallas and Fort Worth, is American’s headquarters of operations and is its largest hub.

Across all California airports offering commercial service, 66 flights were canceled, according to FlightAware, while more than 400 flights were held. The most significant delays in the state were at San Francisco International, San Diego International and Los Angeles International, FlightAware reported.

Numerous canceled flights in the Dallas and Houston areas have caused more delays at some of the nation’s busiest airports, including Seattle-Tacoma, Denver and LaGuardia, Kennedy and Newark airports, according to FlightAware’s “Misery Map.” from the New York area.

Officials from both airlines did not immediately respond to questions about the disruptions. DFW Airport officials were optimistic that afternoon flights would go as planned. The flight dashboard at Love Field, known as DAL, indicated that many flights were scheduled to take off later in the afternoon.

Travelers or family members with questions about the disruptions were encouraged to visit airline websites or call customer service – American can be reached at 800-433-7300 and Southwest at 800-435 -9792.