UNDATED (AP) The new year is bringing more of the same old misery that air travelers in the United States have been enduring for more than a week. Airlines are blaming wintry weather and high numbers of sickouts due to the rising number of COVID-19 infections around the country. According to tracking service FlightAware, more than 2,600 U.S. flights and nearly 4,600 worldwide had been canceled by late Saturday afternoon. That’s the highest single-day toll yet since just before Christmas, when airlines began blaming staffing shortages on increasing COVID-19 infections among crews. But weather, not the virus, was the culprit in Chicago, where Southwest Airlines suspended flights because of the grim forecast.
