American Airlines canceled an additional 72 flights in and out of the Dallas area on Tuesday because of scheduling backups caused by powerful thunderstorms a day earlier.
Monday's storms forced the cancellation of about 130 American flights in and out of Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, the airline's main hub, said company spokeswoman Andrea Huguely. Several flights bound for the airport were also diverted elsewhere because of the storms, she said.
It was not immediately clear whether other carriers canceled flights to and from the airport. David Magana, an airport spokesman, said he didn't know how many flights had been canceled Tuesday.
Crews determined that 25 American planes required inspection for possible hail damage, said Huguely. Sixteen passed the inspection, seven were still to be checked Tuesday and two others with minor hail damage were repaired and will be returned to service, she said.
"The system gets backed up when you have bad weather," Huguely said. "It creates a domino effect, it makes it difficult to catch up."
Severe thunderstorms were forecast for the Dallas area later on Tuesday, and Huguely said bad weather could result in more flights being canceled.
"It's springtime, it's that time of the year when thunderstorms pop up," said Huguely. "It's very frustrating and inconvenient for our customers and we realize that."
American works with customers to make sure they have a hotel room if they wish, but some passengers do not choose to go to a hotel, she said.
Only about 370 customers of electric provider Oncor were still without power Tuesday, following a high of around 3,400 outages Monday, the utility said.
