Holiday travel is mostly pleasant, but with some annoying disruptions again on Southwest Airlines

Conditions have been mostly good this year for passengers traveling before and on Christmas, but some annoying disruptions once again plagued travelers with Southwest Airlines.

For millions of people traveling over the holiday, this year has been much better than it was last. Christmas morning put the bow on A relatively smooth weekend.

By midday Monday, just 138 flights into, to or from the United States had been canceled, and 1,366 flights had been postponed, according to flight tracking site FlightAware.

For this holiday season, US airlines are preparing to… Huge waves of travelers by hiring thousands of pilots, flight attendants and other workers — in an effort to avoid the delays and cancellations that have marred travel in 2022, which has peaked with… Southwest Airlines disaster More than 2 million people were stranded.

However, Southwest experienced some hiccups again over the weekend that the airline was looking to clear up by Monday. Just 2% of the company's flights were canceled Monday, though 12% were delayed, for a total of 524 flights, according to FlightAware.

FlightAware data showed that on Saturday and Sunday, Southwest canceled 426 flights and postponed 2,689 flights.

A Southwest spokesman blamed the issues on heavy fog in Chicago on Saturday and Sunday that prevented planes from landing and said some additional cancellations may be necessary Monday before what was expected to be a full recovery on Tuesday.

The AAA Auto Club predicted that between Saturday and New Year's Day, 115 million people in the United States will travel at least 50 miles (80 kilometers) from their homes by air or car. This is 2% more than last year.

The Transportation Security Administration screened more than 2.6 million people Thursday, according to TSA records. Data from the weekend has not yet been released.

During Thanksgivinga record number of people traveled through US airports, surpassing pre-coronavirus numbers in 2019 with a single-day record of 2.9 million people screened by the TSA on Sunday, November 2019. 26.

Compared to last year's holiday season, mild weather helped keep air travel schedules on time.

But on the ground, road conditions were dangerous in parts of the country on Christmas Day, thanks to accumulating snow and ice in the Midwest and Great Plains. Most of Nebraska and South Dakota are facing blizzard conditions, and parts of eastern North and South Dakota are also facing ice storms, the National Weather Service said.

The busiest days on the route are expected to be Saturday, December 1. December 23, and next Thursday. 28, according to transportation data provider INRIX.