Are flights still being canceled? Yes. More than 1,200 cancellations so far Tuesday

Travelers hoping to fly out Tuesday may face another rude awakening.

More than 1,200 U.S. flights have already been canceled as of 9 a.m. Arizona time, including roughly 10% of flights on Southwest, JetBlue and Alaska Airlines, according to flight tracker FlightAware.

Southwest has the highest number of cancellations among U.S.-based airlines.

"Following the winter weather that moved across the country this week, operational planners at Southwest are working to get our aircraft and crews back in place to support a more normal operation," the airline said in a statement to USA TODAY. "Southwest has cancelled roughly 300 flights of the more than 3,600 flights scheduled for Tuesday across our network. We appreciate the patience and support from our customers as the Southwest team works diligently and safely to get customers to their destinations as soon as possible."

Utah-based SkyWest has the next highest cancellations with 159, representing 7% of the airline's scheduled flights. Third highest among domestic carriers is JetBlue with 107 canceled flights.

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JetBlue cancellations are to be expected, as the airline announced last week that it was proactively canceling nearly 1,300 through mid-January to give customers time to plan as they grapple with COVID-related staffing shortages.

Delta, United and American also struggled with sick calls and winter weather over the holidays. They're seeing between 1% to 3% of their flights canceled Tuesday.

Independent travel industry analyst Robert Mann expected staffing options to improve as airlines began new reserve pools for standby employees at the start of each month, but he warned that COVID-19 could continue be a wild card.

"Over time, there will be an impact of the new case rate continuing into January and until the omicron variant runs its course," said the president of R.W. Mann and former airline executive for airlines like American and TWA. "Of course, nobody knows when that's going to be."

Travelers should check their flight status before heading to the airport and know that airlines are required to offer refunds if their flights get canceled for any reason, per Department of Transportation rules.

More than 20,000 flights within, to and from the U.S. have been canceled since Christmas Eve.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Flight cancellations creep up again with 1,200+ canceled Tuesday