The third and final phase of Winter Storm Thor is nearly underway in the eastern U.S. and is already crippling air travel for Thursday.
According to FlightAware.com, more than 1,500 flights scheduled for Thursday have been preemptively canceled nationwide as of 4 p.m. ET on Wednesday.
A majority of those cancellations have come at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, which has been heavily impacted by ice of late.
"We encourage customers who have travel scheduled tonight or tomorrow morning to check their flight status on AA.com," said American Airlines spokeswoman Andrea Huguely on Wednesday via Terry Maxon of the Dallas Morning News. "We have put a travel waiver in place for customers flying to, from or through DFW Airport, which allows for more flexibility to change travel plans."
DFW reported 627 total flight cancellations for Wednesday as of this writing, with Chicago O'Hare International and a number of major airports along the I-95 corridor having been impacted by cancellations as well.
Wednesday's total nationwide flight delays stood at nearly 2,900 as of 4 p.m. ET.
Some of the same airports impacted by winter weather on Wednesday are expected to have their flight schedules disrupted again on Thursday when an arctic front pushes south and east where it'll eventually meet up with moisture.
DFW (326), Philadelphia International (291), Newark Liberty (247), Reagan National (229), LaGuarida (214), Washington Dulles (156), John F. Kennedy International (95), Chicago O'Hare (85) and Boston Logan (72) have been the most proactive airports in terms of early cancellations for Thursday as of Wednesday afternoon.
While things should begin to clear up once Thor is out of the picture later this week, the unrelenting winter weather in recent weeks means that air travelers could be feeling the effects for the next few days.
According to USA Today's Ben Mutzabaugh, "more than 17,000 flights have been canceled and a whopping 52,600 delayed since the latest string of successive storms began to disrupt air travel" on Feb. 21.
With widespread flight delays and cancellations expected amid Thor's final act on Thursday, it's important that air travelers stay updated on their flight status:
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