Hundreds of flights cancelled at Chicago airports due to storm; O'Hare closed for several hours overnight
Chicago's O'Hare International Airport was closed for several hours overnight due to an early season winter storm that pounded the area.
Hundreds of flights have been canceled at both O'Hare and Midway airports Monday due to the weather. Monday afternoon, O'Hare was put under a ground stop expected to last several hours due to staffing issues amid the ongoing government shutdown.
CHECK: Flight delays
According to the Chicago Department of Aviation, as of 1:54 p.m. 461 flights had been canceled at O'Hare, and 134 flights were canceled at Midway. Average delays at O'Hare stand at about 53 minutes and there are delays of about 15 minutes at Midway.
Chicago's airports are struggling with a one-two punch of the storm and staffing issues tied to the federal government shutdown.
On Friday, the U.S. Department of Transportation issued a mandate to reduce air traffic by 10% at 40 "high-volume" airports. This resulted in flight cancellations at O'Hare and Midway regardless of the weather.
Numerous air travelers saw their itineraries disrupted at O'Hare on Monday morning.
CNN correspondent Whitney Wild talked with one woman who said she was flying from Burbank, California outside Los Angeles to New York City by way of San Francisco and Chicago. She was supposed to be at O'Hare for a two-hour layover, but now, her layover has ballooned to 30 hours with her flight to New York canceled.
A Winter Storm Warning was issued for much of the Chicago area and Northwest Indiana Monday morning for the unseasonable fall snowstorm that clobbered much of the area with lake-effect snow.