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Reno-Tahoe International Airport passengers are facing flight delays and cancellations as winter storms persist nationwide.

Airport officials are encouraging visitors to bring fully-charged cell phones, snacks, and refillable water bottles to prepare for long wait times.

“One of the biggest travel tips we can give you right now is to check with your airline before you come to the airport to make sure your flight is on-time,” said Stacey Sunday, communications director with the Reno-Tahoe Airport Authority.

She said that the airport is seeing over 15,000 passengers through its doors during peak travel times.

With ongoing construction in the pick-up and drop-off area, she added that the airport is encouraging drivers to take advantage of the cell phone waiting lot.

“Bring your patience with you,” Sunday said. “I know it’s tough right now, but it’s exciting that everyone’s back to traveling, and we’re here.”

For information on current flights, visit this link: https://bit.ly/3PPOrKc

Problems at Southwest Airlines appeared to snowball after the worst of the storm passed. It canceled more than 70% of its flights Monday and more than 60% on Tuesday. The airline has also scrubbed 2,500 flights for Wednesday and nearly 1,200 for Thursday as it tried to restore order to its mangled schedule.

American, United, Delta and JetBlue, suffered cancellations rates of between none and 2% by Tuesday.

The disparity has triggered a closer look at Southwest operations by the U.S. Department of Transportation, which called the rate of cancellations “disproportionate and unacceptable," and sought to ensure that the Dallas carrier was sticking by its obligations to stranded customers.

Southwest spokesman Jay McVay said at a press conference in Houston that cancellations snowballed as storm systems moved across the country, leaving flight crews and planes out of place.

“So we’ve been chasing our tails, trying to catch up and get back to normal safely, which is our number one priority as quickly as we could,” he said. "And that’s exactly how we ended up where we are today.”

Passengers stood in long lines trying to rebook their flights.

The size and severity of the storm created havoc for many airlines, although the largest number of canceled flights Tuesday were at airports where Southwest is a major carrier, including Denver, Chicago Midway, Las Vegas, Baltimore and Dallas.

Spirit Airlines and Alaska Airlines both canceled about 10% of their flights, with much smaller cancellation percentages at American, Delta, United and JetBlue.

In upstate New York, Buffalo Niagara International Airport — close to the epicenter of the storm — remained closed Tuesday.

The president of the union representing Southwest pilots blamed the lack of crews to fly planes on scheduling software written in the 1990s and on management that he said failed to fix things after previous meltdowns, including a major disruption in October 2021.

“There is a lot of frustration because this is so preventable,” said the union official, Capt. Casey Murray. “The airline cannot connect crews to airplanes. I’m concerned about this weekend. I’m concerned about a month from now.”

(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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