Winter Storm Causing Thousands of Flight Cancellations, Delays Across US

A major winter storm system will dump heavy snow and freezing rain on nearly half of the United States through the remainder of the week, impacting travel plans for Americans from New Mexico to Maine.

According to FlightAware.com, more than 5,400 flights within, into or out of the U.S. have been canceled and another 3,100 have been delayed as of 11:50 a.m. ET on Thursday. On Wednesday, over 3,700 flights were canceled and 7,757 were delayed.

Our national forecast chart paints the picture of the very active weather day ahead. Widespread heavy snow and freezing rain is forecast from New England to Texas. In addition, there is the risk for flash flooding as well as severe weather across portions of the South. pic.twitter.com/dnqRQwwNlC

— NWS Weather Prediction Center (@NWSWPC) February 3, 2022

American, Delta, Southwest and United were the major U.S. airlines impacted most by the storm, while major airports in cities such as Chicago, Dallas, Denver, New York, St Louis and Washington D.C. experienced major weather-related issues.

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American is waiving change fees for passengers flying to or from 28 airports in the Northeastern U.S. and Canada through February 7, and 68 airports throughout the rest of the country—primarily the Midwest and the Plains—through February 6.

Delta has four weather waivers in place to allow itinerary changes free of charge for travel to the Northeastern U.S. and Toronto, the South-Central Plains and Texas, the Midwest and Great Lakes region and the Rocky Mountain region.

Southwest and United are also waiving change fees for impacted airports in the same regions.

To complicate matters, airlines were already dealing with the aftermath of a weekend Mid-Atlantic Nor’easter snowstorm that caused carriers serving the region to delay and cancel thousands of flights.