Thousands of Canceled Flights Upend Travel Plans Across U.S.

Thousands of stranded holiday travelers were no closer to home on Tuesday, as the aftermath of a deadly winter storm that grounded flights and wreaked havoc over the holiday weekend continued to play out at airline counters across the country.

Travelers were forced to sleep on the floors and wait hours in line for customer service because of the canceled flights.

At 7 a.m. More than 800 flights were delayed or canceled in the US on Tuesday. Southwest Airlines had already canceled more than half of its flights for the day.

More than 4,000 U.S. flights were canceled and more than 8,500 were delayed on Monday.

Southwest Airlines said in a statement on Monday that the travel disruptions were unacceptable and that its network was behind because of the winter storm. The company apologized for the disruptions and said that it was working to fix them.

Southwest was in damage control mode by late Monday and into Tuesday. The airline apologized multiple times and offered assistance through direct messages, which didn't satisfy everyone. The U.S. Department of transportation said in a statement on Monday that it would look into the Southwest issue, adding that it was concerned by the airline's "unacceptable rate of cancellation and delays."

According to David Vernon, an analyst at the financial firm, Southwest has a point-to-point system. When things go wrong, that type of system can cause cascading effects.

No one region or airport was hit the hardest by the cancellation. More than 200 flights from Denver International Airport and more than 115 flights from Chicago Midway International were canceled on Tuesday. More than 100 flights were canceled at Harry Reid International in Las Vegas, as well as at Baltimore-Washington International, Dallas Love Field, and Nashville International in Tennessee.

Since the winter storm began, airlines have canceled thousands of flights. About a quarter of all US flights were canceled the day after. More than 3000 flights were canceled on Christmas Eve and less than 3,200 flights were canceled on Christmas Day.

In Buffalo, at least 28 people died and roads were rendered useless after the worst winter storm in more than 50 years. The snow was expected to end early Tuesday and the driving ban was still in place. Kathy Hochul said on Monday that many streets hadn't beenplowed.

According to poweroutage.us, thousands remained without power in Maine and New York early Tuesday, despite the fact that most of the power had been restored.