“A winter storm this weekend is expected to have a significant impact on our operations, particularly at Charlotte International Airport (CLT),” American said in a statement.
The airline has also issued a travel notice allowing weather-affected customers to book flights at no charge.
About 74 million people were on winter weather alert Saturday evening, according to the National Weather Service.
The massive storm system is moving from the Midwest toward the eastern United States and is expected to make crippling snow over parts of Georgia, Virginia and the Carolinas on Sunday. The governors of those states have declared a state of emergency.
“The next 48 hours will be the biggest issue ever: snow, and a lot of it,” CNN meteorologist Alison Chincher said Saturday morning.
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is a federal holiday on Monday, January 17, with many schools and offices closed.
American isn’t the only carrier canceling flights. As of 4:30 EST Saturday, Southwest has canceled 164 flights, or 4% of its operations, according to FlightAware, while Delta Air Lines has canceled 153 flights, or 7% of its operations.
Other airports in the Southeast also faced significant cancellations on Sunday, such as Raleigh-Durham International Airport in North Carolina that canceled more than half of its flights that day, or 74. Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport has canceled 19%, or 155, of its flights on Sunday.
There were more than 400 cancellations and 2,000 delays in the United States on Saturday as the storm moved south.
CNN’s Jason Hanna, Hannah Gard, Alain Orjoux and Chris Isidore contributed to this report.
,