Some flight cancellations and delays continue after US storms dump snow
in the Midwest and head east
[March 17, 2026]
By EMIILIE MEGNIEN and RIO YAMAT
ATLANTA (AP) — Hundreds of flights were canceled or delayed Tuesday, one
day after powerful storms swept across the eastern half of the country
and upended air travel in a cross-section of cities. Travelers have been
facing additional jams at airport security checkpoints as a partial
government shutdown strains screener staffing.
The disruptions come at an already challenging time for air travel, in
part because the shutdown that began Feb. 14 has pressured staffing at
some security checkpoints. At the same time, airports are crowded with
spring break travelers and fans heading to March Madness games, the
annual NCAA men’s and women’s college basketball tournaments.
More than 550 flights scheduled to fly into, out of or within the U.S.
have been called off as of early Tuesday, and over 460 were delayed,
according to flight-tracking site FlightAware.
Flight delays and cancellations piled up Monday at some of the nation’s
largest airports, including those in New York, Chicago and Atlanta. The
storm system that dumped heavy snow across the Midwest raced toward the
East Coast with the potential for high winds and tornadoes, the National
Weather Service warned Monday.
Kelly Price, who was trying to get home to Colorado after a family
vacation in Orlando, Florida, said her Sunday night flight wasn’t
canceled until early Monday.
“By that time the only place for us to sleep was the airport floor. So
we’re all tired and frustrated,” she said, adding that the soonest she
and her family could book another flight doesn’t leave until Tuesday
afternoon.
Impact to major airport hubs
The nationwide cancellations on Monday included about 600 in and out of
Chicago O’Hare International, more than 470 at Atlanta’s
Hartsfield-Jackson International and over 450 at LaGuardia Airport in
New York City, according to FlightAware.
Citing severe weather, the Federal Aviation Administration ordered
ground stops at Hartsfield-Jackson and Charlotte Douglas International
Airport and ground delays at JFK and Newark Liberty International
Airport.
Danielle Cash found herself stranded in St. Louis on Sunday while trying
to get home to Tampa, Florida, after a weekend girls’ trip to Las Vegas.
Now she’s spending several hundred dollars more than planned on a hotel
room in a snowy city she wasn’t dressed for.
“It was 80 degrees in Tampa when I left and then going to Vegas," she
said. “And it was 90 degrees in the desert.”
Cash said she’s now booked on a flight that will take her to Tennessee
before finally returning to Tampa by Tuesday afternoon.
TSA staffing strains some checkpoints
The storms unfolded just as airport security screeners missed their
first full paycheck over the weekend. The current partial government
shutdown affects only the Department of Homeland Security, which
includes the Transportation Security Administration.
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People wait in a departure terminal at Ronald Reagan National
Airport, in Arlington, Va., Monday, March 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Cliff
Owen)
Democrats in Congress have said Homeland Security won’t get funded
until new restrictions are placed on federal immigration operations
following the fatal shootings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in
Minneapolis earlier this year.
It is the third shutdown in less than a year to leave TSA workers
temporarily without pay. Once the government reopens, employees will
have to wait for back pay.
Some airports have reported longer security lines because of
staffing shortages as more TSA workers take on second jobs, can’t
afford gas to get to work or leave the profession altogether.
Homeland Security has said more than 300 TSA agents have quit since
the start of the shutdown.
Security wait times could worsen
TSA union leaders in Atlanta held a news conference Monday outside
Hartsfield-Jackson, warning that air travelers could face
increasingly long wait times as the shutdown continues. Even so,
union leaders said, many officers are still reporting to work
despite mounting financial strain.
Many TSA workers “are coping with eviction notices, vehicle
repossessions, empty refrigerators and overdrawn bank accounts,”
said Aaron Barker, a local leader with the American Federation of
Government Employees. Supporters behind him held signs reading, “We
want a paycheck, not a rain check.”
Travelers flying out of New Orleans on Sunday and Monday were
advised to arrive at least three hours early “due to impacts from
the federal government’s partial shutdown,” Louis Armstrong
International Airport said on X. And the airport in Austin, Texas,
shared a video on X taken at 5:30 a.m. local time showing the
security line spilling out onto the sidewalk outside.
Back in Atlanta, Mel Stewart and his wife arrived four hours earlier
than usual for their flight out of Hartsfield-Jackson to make up for
longer TSA lines.
“I think it’s being politicized way too much — way too much,”
Stewart said Monday of the shutdown. “And these people are working.
They work hard, and for TSA people not to get paid, that’s silly.”
___
Yamat reported from Las Vegas. Associated Press reporters Margery A.
Beck in Omaha, Nebraska and Audrey McAvoy in Honolulu contributed to
this report.
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