Recent Snow Storm Pushes Airline Costs to Over $600 000

This past week there was a major snowfall across the United States and eastern Canada. This has pushed the costs of flight cancellation related costs to over $600 000 this winter. Since the US government started tracking, this has been the worst winter for cancellations. In the United States, there have been 89 884 flight cancellations since Nov. 1st, 2010. This year has already surpassed the next highest annual total of cancellations by 12 000. Over the span of Jan. 31st - Feb. 4th, there were over 20 000 cancellations caused by storm system called "Snowpocolypse". Last week in Chicago and New York, there was a bout 50cm's of snow on the ground. They have reportedly lost $7 000 with every flight cancellation. Companies such as JetBlue and United Continental have been suffering a great deal of profit loss. Delta CEO Richard Anderson, admits to the snow costing their company profit. With Air Canada and WestJet, both companies did not want to comment on how last week's storm cost their businesses financially. With this weather, companies are struggling to pay additional costs. With the rising cost of jet fuel, it continues to make things more difficult for the airline business.

These hard times cannot be blamed on anyone but the weather. Unfortunately the airline business is affected by the weather which is a constant. Nobody controls the weather, therefore Airlines should expect a certain amount of cancellations annually, it is always better to be safe than sorry. If the companies are expecting some cancellations and save money in the process, then if the weather is good than you have some extra company savings to give bonuses or help improve the airline.