By Emily Mae Czachor
Updated on: December 1, 2025 / 1:08 AM EST / CBS News
Travelers across the United States faced widespread delays and cancellations over the busy holiday weekend as winter weather and an aviation software directive disrupted schedules.
Flight tracker FlightAware reported 12,113 inbound and outbound delays and 1,424 cancellations nationwide on Sunday. Airports in Chicago, New York City, Boston, Des Moines, Fort Lauderdale and Detroit were among the hardest hit. In Providence, Rhode Island, a fire under three Amtrak train cars carrying passengers was extinguished and the cars relocated; no injuries were reported. CBS News contacted Amtrak for information on broader impacts but did not receive an immediate response.
A powerful snowstorm in the Midwest and Great Lakes prompted National Weather Service winter-storm warnings and advisories from Montana to Ohio. Forecasters warned that heavy, slow-moving snow—at times exceeding an inch per hour—would lead to airport delays and slow road travel. The storm dropped more than 8 inches in parts of northern Iowa. By Saturday night, Chicago-area airports had seen over 1,400 cancellations amid forecasts of up to 10 inches of snow. Detroit-area airports reported more than 300 delays and dozens of cancellations.
Separately, the Federal Aviation Administration flagged thousands of Airbus A320-family aircraft worldwide for required software updates, creating additional disruption. JetBlue canceled about 170 flights on Sunday as it installed mandated updates on portions of its A320 and A321 fleets. The airline said it expected to have installations completed for nearly 120 aircraft by Sunday morning, with roughly 30 still remaining, and warned that additional cancellations were possible. FlightAware showed JetBlue had canceled 74 flights originally scheduled for Sunday, roughly 7% of its schedule. A JetBlue source said the carrier was working as quickly as possible.
Frontier and Spirit Airlines also confirmed that some of their Airbus aircraft required the FAA-mandated updates. Frontier said it completed its updates by Sunday morning without customer impact. Spirit said it expected to finish updates on affected aircraft by Saturday and said it was working to minimize operational effects on guests.
Kris Van Cleave contributed to this report.
