Hurricane Beryl snarls air travel across Texas as 80% of Houston’s flights canceled

Airports across the state have canceled hundreds of flights as Hurricane Beryl made landfall on the Texas coast Monday morning, bringing with it torrential rainfall and destructive winds. Houston, which lies directly in the Category-1 storm’s path, was hit worst, grounding more than a thousand flights across its two airport hubs.

Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport, the second-busiest airport in Texas and 15th-biggest nationally, canceled 80% of its outbound flights and 67% of its inbound flights, according to FlightAware.com. The city’s other travel hub, William P. Hobby International Airport, canceled 62% of its departures and 52% of its arrivals, combining for more than a thousand groundings across the city.

The vast majority of the affected flights were on United Airlines and Southwest Airlines, both of which have major hubs in Houston at George Bush Intercontinental Airport and William P. Hobby Airport, respectively. United was forced to cancel 69% of its flights into or out of IAH — 389 total — while Southwest canceled 80%, or 280, of its flights through HOU.

Both Houston airports’ flights to and from Dallas-Fort Worth have been heavily disrupted by the storms, with 77% and 100% of incoming flights from Intercontinental and Hobby to DFW Airport, respectively, being canceled. Dallas-Love Field canceled half of its inbound flights and 47% of its outbound flights to Hobby Airport as well as two flights into and out of Bush Intercontinental Airport.

Elsewhere in Texas, Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, San Antonio International Airport and Corpus Christi International Airport have canceled 40 outbound flights between them, with Corpus Christi’s 16 cancellations accounting for 76% of its total outbound traffic.

Southwest, United and American Airlines all have travel advisories in place through Tuesday across the state, including both Houston airports, Austin, San Antonio and Corpus Christi. Each airline is offering flight changes without additional costs to affected travelers wishing to rebook.

The wave of cancellations comes on the back of the busiest day in U.S. air travel history on Sunday, as more than three million passengers were screened by TSA agents across the country after the Fourth of July holiday.

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