Thousands of flights cancelled, delayed over US storm

SAN FRANCISCO: More than 3,000 flights were cancelled on Friday and thousands more hit by delays due to a storm in the southern US, airlines and tracking website FlightAware reported.

Delta Airlines said a “worse-than-expected mix of winter weather” prompted the shutdown of all five runways at Atlanta International Airport for more than two hours.

“Delta cancelled approximately 1,100 flights across our network” Friday, the carrier said as it was “working to recover the airline heading into Saturday”.

A Delta plane also had to abort take-off at Atlanta because of an engine problem.

More than 200 passengers and crew aboard the Boeing 757-300 had to exit via emergency slides, US media reported – citing a company statement.

Dallas Fort Worth (Texas) and Charlotte Douglas (North Carolina) were also affected by the bad weather, with more than 1,200 flights cancelled across the two airports, according to FlightAware.

The tracking website recorded more than 3,000 cancellations in total across multiple airports on Friday.

The US was already hit by a winter storm at the start of the week, leaving at least five people dead and prompting hundreds of flights to be scrapped as it swept across the centre and east of the country.

Temperatures plummeted below zero degrees Fahrenheit (-18 degrees Celsius) in some places and tens of thousands of people were left without electricity.