Its not just about the storms in your area, it’s about a very complex operational plan to get your aircraft to its start point and ultimately to the advertised destination when a major part of the network is being disrupted. Canceling early is disruptive, but not as disruptive as having a plane load of angry passengers sat waiting to take off with a ground stop in place, or diverted to somewhere without operational support.

The majority of airlines take the view that delayed or cancelled passengers are already angry and there’s not much to be done that can change that. They instead focus on trying to contain the disruption and prevent it cascading across too many days and locations. Pre-emptive cancellation is just one aspect of that containment and recovery action.

The metrics concerning the size, frequency, active periodicity and geographic impact of severe convective weather is only going one way at the moment, accordingly these major disruptions will become part and parcel of the joy of airline travel, better strap in and get used to it.