Airports are buckling under pressure—and some could shut down, officials warn

A government shutdown, war in the Middle East, and storms: airline passengers in the U.S. are facing quite a number of issues right now.  On Sunday, 10,740 flights were delayed and another 3,249 were canceled within, into, or out of the U.S., according to FlightAware. On Monday, those numbers rose to 12,926 and 4,863, respectively.  More than half of flights into and out of Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson airport (ATL) were delayed Monday, while over a third of those into or out of New York’s LaGuardia Airport (LGA) were canceled. A similar pattern followed on Monday, and by 8 a.m. ET on Tuesday there were 1,156 delays with another 215 cancellations.  Why is air travel such a mess right now? Airports’ most recent issue is weather. Winter Storm Iona plummeted parts of the Midwest over the weekend and into Monday, bringing record snowfall up to three feet in places like Michigan and Wisconsin, The Weather Channel reports. More than 20 tornadoes have also swept through s