Winter travel always comes with delays caused by extreme weather, which was very much the case today for those flying out of Dallas Love Field (DAL) airport or Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW). Dense fog and severe thunderstorms rolled through the greater Dallas Metropolitan area, just hours after the Christmas holiday ended and thousands of passengers prepared to take to the skies on one of the busiest travel days of the year.
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Both of the city's major airports have experienced significant delays
Dallas Love Field, the secondary, smaller facility that serves the greater Dallas area and mostly operates as a base for Southwest Airlines, has been operating at a ground stop since 8:30 AM today. Initially, according to advisories posted by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the ground stop is set to expire at 12:30 PM local time, after which normal operations could resume if the storm lets up.
Photo: Robin Guess | Shutterstock
Currently, the average delay at the airport is over 60 minutes, a number that is only set to go up further as the day progresses. Even if weather conditions return to operational levels, residual delays will likely continue to affect operations throughout the day. According to the FAA, the likelihood of the ground stop extending further is currently listed as "high," indicating the airport's low confidence that the storm will subside promptly.
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Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, the primary facility serving the metropolitan area which also serves as a major hub for legacy carrier American Airlines, has also been hit hard by today's weather-caused delays. The airport has been operating at a ground stop as well since early this morning, although the current one is set to expire at 1 PM local time.
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This comes just hours after severe weather in the Dallas area caused extensive delays yesterday which, as Christmas Day, was fortunately not as busy of a travel day as today is. According to FAA bulletins, the average delays at the facility are ranging up to 131 minutes long, and they are only continuing to decrease, unfortunately.
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Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport IATA/ICAO Code DFW/KDFW Country United States CEO Sean Donohue Terminals Terminal A | Terminal B | Terminal C | Terminal D | Terminal E
Passengers traveling to or from Dallas today should be sure to anticipate heavy delays and potentially even some cancellations. For those flying on a connecting itinerary through Dallas, they might need to begin considering whether finding an itinerary that connects somewhere besides Dallas might be a better option. Across the board, passengers set to interact with the Dallas airport system should have their expectations in the right place before they head to the airport today.
Hundreds of flights have been delayed or canceled
According to flight tracking website FlightAware, Dallas/Fort Worth currently leads the nation in terms of the worst flight cancellations and delays, while Dallas Love Field does not sit far behind. Across the board, delays in Dallas are worse than those in New York, Denver, Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco combined.
Photo: AFM Visuals | Shutterstock
The only airport in nearly the same conversation in terms of cancellations is Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH), which is dealing with some of the same weather-related issues. The vast majority of flights canceled or delayed in the Dallas area are operated by American Airlines and Southwest Airlines, and passengers have been reminded to check their flight status before heading to the airport.
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As of 12:30 PM local time, 168 flights at DFW had been delayed and 53 had been fully canceled. Over at Love Field, 42 flights experienced significant delays.