Winter Storm Snarls Post-Christmas Flights in Northeast

United Continental Holdings Inc. (UAL) and Delta Air Lines Inc. (DAL) joined carriers canceling more than 400 flights in the northeastern U.S. today because of a winter storm, snarling travel for passengers returning from Christmas vacations.

Snow piled higher than 6 inches (15 centimeters) in some mid-Atlantic regions, and more wintry precipitation is forecast this weekend, according to the National Weather Service.

Today’s cancellations add to 2,170 flights scrubbed in the past two days, mostly in the Midwest, as the storm dumped as much as 14 inches of snow in northwestern Pennsylvania near Lake Erie. About 42 million passengers will fly between Dec. 17 and Jan. 6, making it one of the busiest travel seasons of the year, the Airlines for America trade group estimates.

Philadelphia and New York’s LaGuardia airport each had about two dozen cancellations today, while John F. Kennedy and New Jersey’s Newark Liberty airports each had more than a dozen, according to FlightAware.com, a Houston-based flight data tracker.

Regional carriers including Republic Airways Holdings Inc. (RJET), Air Wisconsin Airlines Corp. and SkyWest Inc. (SKYW)’s ExpressJet unit had the most cancellations today, with about 50 each, FlightAware data showed. Those airlines perform flights for bigger companies such as US Airways Group Inc., (LCC) United and Delta.

To contact the reporter on this story: Mary Jane Credeur in Atlanta at mcredeur@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Ed Dufner at edufner@bloomberg.net