Thousands of U.S. flights were delayed or canceled Wednesday because of smoke from Canadian wildfires—just as travelers started to head out for the July 4 holiday weekend.
Canceled flights numbered 860 shortly before 4 p.m., according to the flight-tracking website FightAware. Delays totaled more than 3,900.
United Airlines (ticker: UAL) topped the list, with 425 cancellations and 783 delays. JetBlue came in second with 91 cancellations and 376 delays.
New York-area airports LaGuardia, Newark, and JFK logged the most cancellations and delays, along with Chicago’s O’Hare.
The smoke was choking the Upper Midwest. On Wednesday, Chicago, Detroit, and Minneapolis all ranked in the top 10 cities with the worst air quality, according to IQAir, a site that tracks pollution in major cities. Toronto held the top spot. Others on the list included Washington, D.C.; Delhi, India; Lahore, Pakistan, and Baghdad.
The delays and cancellations ramped up Tuesday after extreme heat and thunderstorms lumbered across the South.
Temperatures were breaking records. Many cities reported highs above 100 degrees. More than 60 million Americans, from Arizona to Texas to Florida, were under some kind of heat alert, according to the National Weather Service.
The Fourth of July holiday weekend is typically one of the busiest travel periods of the year. More than 50 million Americans will travel more than 50 miles, according to the AAA, beating the prepandemic level set in 2019.
Write to Brian Swint at brian.swint@barrons.com
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