More than a thousand flights are being grounded as a blast of arctic air barrels over the Midwest, bringing with it temperatures too low for airfield workers to load bags or get planes ready for takeoff.
United Continental Holdings Inc. is canceling about 80% of its schedule at its hub in Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, or about 500 of the more than 600 daily flights it operates there. The cancellations stretch from Tuesday evening through Thursday morning.
Southwest Airlines Co. said it canceled more than 700 flights at Chicago's Midway International Airport scheduled for Tuesday through Thursday. About 70% of all flights to and from Midway on Wednesday have been canceled, according to tracking website FlightAware. A Southwest spokesman said the airline doesn't want its employees exposed to extreme conditions like those expected at Midway for more than 10 minutes at a time.
Chicago and other cities in the Midwest are bracing for some of the coldest temperatures to hit the region in decades. Temperatures in Chicago could reach record lows Wednesday with wind chills of minus 50 Fahrenheit, dangerously cold conditions that can cause frostbite to exposed skin in as little as five minutes, according to the National Weather Service.
"Our employees really cannot work in that type of environment for a long period of time at all," said Jim DeYoung, United's vice president of network operations. For the few flights that do depart, teams will take turns working outside for just a few minutes to give each other breaks to warm up, he said.
"It's going to be a slow process," Mr. DeYoung said, adding that United will decide on Wednesday whether and how to amend its regular flight schedule for the remainder of Thursday.
American Airlines Group Inc. said it cancelled 225 flights Tuesday and 185 Wednesday, including 75 Wednesday departures from O'Hare. The carrier said it has been preparing for the frigid temperatures in Chicago and would provide hot drinks and soup to ground crews around the clock.
"We'll have staffing at maximum levels to ensure we are able to rotate our team members who work outside more frequently," said American spokesman Ross Feinstein.
Delta Air Lines Inc. is planning for largely normal flight operations at its hubs in Minneapolis and Detroit through Thursday, a spokesman said. Earlier this week, Delta canceled about 170 Tuesday flights in anticipation of a winter storm expected to hit its major hub in Atlanta.
The Delta spokesman said the airline is used to extreme cold at its northern hubs and was planning to store some ground equipment inside overnight and add heaters to parked aircraft to prevent freezing.
Other airlines are taking similar precautions, moving airplanes and equipment like tow tugs, water trucks and planes to heated indoor spaces. Planes fly through even colder temperatures when they're 35,000 feet in the air, but airlines want to keep them primed and ready on the ground. Mr. DeYoung said United will run power to aircraft that can't be brought inside to keep them heated. Southwest also said that in extreme cold temperatures it heats planes so that water lines and lavatories are functioning for flights that do take off.
Airlines have waived fees for changing flights at dozens of airports in the Midwest and Northeast so that travelers concerned about potential cancellations can make other plans without paying fees or stepped up fares.
