Nearly 950 US flights were cancelled and more than 7,700 were delayed on Sunday as travel chaos took its toll

Southwest Airlines cancelled and delayed the most flights out of any US airline on Sunday, per FlightAware. Jonathan Weiss/Shutterstock

• There were almost 950 US flight cancellations and more than 7,700 on Sunday, per a flight tracker.
• Southwest cancelled and delayed the most flights out of any US airline on Sunday, per FlightAware.
• This was an increase in disruption from Saturday, the flight tracker showed.

US flight cancellations hit almost 950, while delays reached more than 7,700 on Sunday as the country continues to be impacted by widespread travel disruption. 

Flight-tracking site FlightAware reported that there were 949 cancelled flights across, into, and out of the US on Sunday. It also showed there was a total of 7,746 delayed flights in, out of, and within the country.

This was an increase from Saturday when 657 flights were cancelled and 7,267 were delayed within, into, and out of the US, CNN reported.

At time of writing, 182 US flights had already been scrapped on Monday, while 645 had been pushed back, per FlightAware.

The US airline which cancelled the most flights on Sunday was Southwest Airlines with 181 cancellations, according to FlightAware. Southwest also delayed 1,532 flights — the most out of any airline that day, per FlightAware.

American Airlines closely followed behind Southwest with 1,003 delays, FlightAware said. Despite this, it cancelled 67 flights on Sunday — 114 less than Southwest, per the flight tracker. Southwest didn't immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

Meanwhile, the airport with the most travel disruption was Chicago O-Hare International Airport with 45% of departing flights and 44% of incoming flights delayed, FlightAware showed. More than 140 outbound flights and 135 inbound flights to Chicago were cancelled, per the tracking site.

On a global scale, there were 2,246 cancellations and 24,102 delays on Sunday, according to FlightAware.

The high number of flight cancellations and delays come as air travel demand soars after the peak of COVID-19. Staffing shortages in the airline industry, partly caused by redundancies during the pandemic, have led to major disruption for passengers. 

Some travelers have been affected by delays because of various reasons, including pilots timing out, aircraft technical issues, and air traffic control problems.

Some airlines are responding to the flight cancellations, including Lufthansa Group, which is planning to hire 10,000 workers by 2023.