More flights canceled or delayed as weather, TSA staffing upend travel

March 17, 2026 / 9:53 AM EDT / CBS/AP
Air travelers faced hundreds of flight cancellations and thousands of delays on Tuesday in the wake of powerful storms that struck the Midwest and Eastern Seaboard.

Many airports also continue to struggle with disruption from reduced staffing at often-jammed security checkpoints amid a partial government shutdown that has lasted more than a month.

The partial shutdown that started Feb.

14 has held up paychecks for employees of the Transportation Security Administration as Congress deadlocked over immigration issues.

More than 300 TSA staffers have quit since the shutdown began, and call-out rates have more than doubled, according to data obtained exclusively by CBS News.

Sunday and Saturday saw the highest and second-highest call out rates so far, TSA data show.

At the same time, airports are crowded with spring break travelers and fans heading to March Madness games as the annual NCAA men's and women's college basketball tournaments ramp up.

More than 900 U.S.

flights have been canceled as of Tuesday morning, and more than 2,600 were delayed, according to flight-tracking site FlightAware .

Flight delays and cancellations also piled up Monday at some of the nation's largest airports, including those in New York, Chicago and Atlanta.

The storm system that dumped heavy snow across the Midwest raced toward the East Coast with high winds reaching gusts near 50 mph in parts of New York, the National Weather Service said.

"By that time the only place for us to sleep was the airport floor.

So we're all tired and frustrated," she said, adding that the soonest she and her family could book another flight doesn't leave until Tuesday afternoon.

The nationwide cancellations on Monday included about 600 flights in and out of Chicago O'Hare International, more than 470 at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International and over 450 at LaGuardia Airport in New York City, according to FlightAware.

Citing severe weather, the Federal Aviation Administration ordered ground stops at Hartsfield-Jackson and Charlotte Douglas International Airport and ground delays at JFK and Newark Liberty International Airport.

"It was 80 degrees in Tampa when I left and then going to Vegas," she said.

"And it was 90 degrees in the desert."
Cash said she's now booked on a flight that will take her to Tennessee before finally returning to Tampa by Tuesday afternoon.

It is the third shutdown in less than a year to leave TSA workers temporarily without pay.

Once the government reopens, employees will have to wait for back pay.

TSA union leaders in Atlanta held a news conference Monday outside Hartsfield-Jackson, warning that air travelers could face increasingly long wait times as the shutdown continues.

Even so, union leaders said, many officers are still reporting to work despite mounting financial strain.

Many TSA workers "are coping with eviction notices, vehicle repossessions, empty refrigerators and overdrawn bank accounts," said Aaron Barker, a local leader with the American Federation of Government Employees.

Supporters behind him held signs reading, "We want a paycheck, not a rain check."
Back in Atlanta, Mel Stewart and his wife arrived four hours earlier than usual for their flight out of Hartsfield-Jackson to make up for longer TSA lines.

"I think it's being politicized way too much — way too much," Stewart said Monday of the shutdown.

"And these people are working.

They work hard, and for TSA people not to get paid, that's silly."
Mark Strassmann contributed to this report.