Hundreds of US flights canceled, delayed amid July Fourth travel chaos

Heading home on the Fourth of July is shaping up to be a headache for many travelers – with more than 150 US flights grounded and hundreds more delayed.

At least 168 flights into, within or out of the US had been canceled as of early Monday, while 883 other domestic trips have been delayed, according to air travel watchdog FlightAware.com.

Twelve flights out of Newark Liberty International Airport – or 2% of all trips – were scuttled and 9 others were delayed. JFK Airport, where a bomb scare frightened fliers Sunday amid the busy holiday weekend, had at least five canceled flights and another 22 delays, data shows.

Officials at Newark warned the public of the peak travel period on Sunday in expectation of “very high passenger volumes” at several terminals.

Globally, at least 13,651 flights were delayed and another 1,527 canceled on Monday, including more than 400 by China Eastern Airlines and another 147 by Scandinavian Airlines, data shows.

The ongoing travel chaos comes a day after at least 312 flights into, out of or within the US had been canceled Sunday — with another 4,663 being delayed. The bulk of the cancellations were tallied in China, Canada and Europe, FlightAware.com reported.

AAA predicted at least 42 million Americans were expected to drive more than 50 miles over the holiday weekend despite historically high gas prices. Another 3.5 million who planned to fly as airlines deal with over-bookings and poor staffing, causing serious delays and cancelations in some cases.

At least 3,765 US flights were delayed Saturday, along with 612 cancellations, nearly triple the daily average of 210 grounded flights, FlightAware.com data showed.

As of late Friday, more than 4,900 US flights had been delayed, with roughly 500 others canceled.