U.S. airports remain mired in chaos, with more flight cancellations announced. On Wednesday, over 2,800 flights were canceled and 3,200 delayed. The vast majority of the canceled flights were at Southwest Airlines, whose CEO said Wednesday it may take days to restore the airline’s regular schedule. The latest delays came after the Transport Workers Union said some Southwest ground support workers developed frostbite during shifts that lasted up to 18 hours over the holiday weekend.

In August, 38 state attorneys general warned in an open letter to Congress that the Department of Transportation was failing to properly regulate the airline industry. They wrote, “Americans are justifiably frustrated that federal government agencies charged with overseeing airline consumer protection are unable or unwilling to hold the airline industry accountable.” According to the watchdog organization Accountable.US, Southwest spent $5.6 billion on stock buybacks in the three years leading up to the pandemic, rather than making investments in infrastructure to be better prepared for extreme weather events.