In what has been a very active winter, airlines have been forced to cancel thousands of flights across the country due to snow and ice. Those canceled flights may cause steep losses for airlines, to the tune of $600 million.

Nearly 20,000 flights were cancelled just last week after a massive winter storm dumped snow across a large swath of the United States.

Since November 1, the number of canceled flights nationwide stands at 89,884, according to FlightStats and FlightAware.com. That is the most cancelations of any winter since the government began tracking data in 1987.

That number would also put airlines’ net revenue losses at about $629 million, according to AirlineForecasts LLC, a company that builds financial models for investors.

This is just more bad news for the industry which already faces financial hardship in 2011 due to rising fuel costs.

Source:  Bloomberg

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