Originally Posted by Ber2dca

One thing to consider here is that most scheduled flights departed Newark for the UK last night - delayed by a couple of hours but not cancelled - so the question of why the MAN flight was cancelled rather than delayed is an interesting one. Perhaps the fact that EWR/MAN is kind of a borderline route to a secondary market of relatively little economic significance to United (especially now in the winter) played a role here? If UA decides to cancel out of economic or operational considerations, it is unlikely to count as exceptional circumstances.