Airlines Call on the FAA for Help As Thousands of Flight Disruptions Hit the East Coast

U.S. airlines have called on the the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to extend a waiver that allowed them to cut back on service.

As thousands of flight disruptions on Monday due to severe storms spanned across the East Coast, U.S. airlines have called on the the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to extend a waiver that allowed them to cut back on service.

More than 8,900 flights were delayed within, into, or out of the United States on Monday and another 1,768 were canceled, according to flight tracker FlightAware, as the storms slammed the East Coast from Tennessee all the way up to New York. Most disruptions were centered around the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (known as the busiest airport in the world), which saw more than 590 outbound flight delays, or about 48 percent of its entire schedule, along with more than 500 inbound delays, amounting to about 41 percent of the schedule.

Delta Air Lines, whose hub is based in Atlanta, saw the most delays of any carrier with more than 1,300 in addition to more than 440 cancellations.

As a result of the severe storms, at least two people died and more than 1.1 million homes and businesses lost power, the Associated Press reported.