Airlines cancel 7,500 flights as storms hits East

Ben Mutzabaugh | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Travelers stranded as snow falls on Manhattan Travelers from all over the world are stranded in Manhattan as snow blankets New York City.





Last update: Monday, 11 p.m. ET .

LATEST UPDATE: Storm grounds about 15% of all Tuesday flights in U.S.

Air travelers faced chaos in the Northeast this week, thanks to a major winter storm that threatens to wallop parts of the region with blizzard conditions.

Airlines reacted to the storm by cancelling more than 7,500 flights through Wednesday. Of those, at least 3,200 were already announced by Sunday – a day before the storm's first flakes fell along the East Coast.

Nearly every big airline also said they would waive change fees for customers scheduled to fly into dozens of airports the storm's path.

As of 11 p.m. ET, more than 2,845 flights had been canceled nationwide for Monday and another 4,340 on Tuesday, according to flight-tracking service FlightAware . Even for Wednesday, more than 300 flights had been preemptively canceled as airlines try to anticipate the storm's extended impact. In total, that put the airlines' collective storm-related cancellations at more than 7,495 for the period stretching from Monday through Wednesday.

It also began to appear increasingly likely that few flights would operate Tuesday at five major airports: New York JFK, Newark Liberty, New York LaGuardia, Boston and Philadelphia. Other airports in the region, including Hartford and Providence -- could also see most Tuesday flights grounded.

Winter storm will intensify as it moves up East Coast A major winter storm system is making its way to the Northeast. Boston, New York and Washington will be hit with very heavy snow. Some areas could see historic levels, possibly as much as 30 inches of snow.

As for the poor weather, the region's major air hubs were expected to see snow develop Monday, with conditions worsening into the evening. Tuesday was expected to be even worse – so bad that all flights may end up being grounded at some of the busiest airports.

American and United, the nation's two biggest carriers, each say they plan to do just that.

American, the nation's biggest carrier after merging with US Airways, tells Today in the Sky that it will have "very limited operations tomorrow (Tuesday) in the Northeast." The airline adds its current plan is "to suspend operations late this afternoon" and all day Tuesday at Philadelphia, Newark Liberty, New York LaGuardia, New York JFK and Boston."

American says it hopes to resume operations at those airports on Wednesday morning. Both Philadelphia and New York JFK are major hubs for the carrier, meaning disruptions are likely to ripple throughout American's U.S. route map.

It's a similar story for United, the nation's second-busiest carrier. United said in a Sunday evening statement that it "will limit operations beginning Monday evening at our Newark hub" as well as at New York's two other big airports: LaGuardia and JFK.

Newark is one of United's biggest hubs, making it likely that the fight disruption there will disrupt the carrier's schedule in other cities.

FlightAware CEO Daniel Baker thinks other carriers may end up halting all Tuesday operations at some Northeast airports too.

"We expect ... virtually all NYC flights to be cancelled tomorrow," he predicted in a Monday morning e-mail.

Some Tuesday flights remained on the schedule at LaGuardia and JFK airports as of 8:15 p.m. ET, but it was uncertain how many -- if any -- would actually fly come Tuesday.

Fliers at Boston Logan will face a similar situation.

"Just about every scheduled flight will be canceled tomorrow," airport spokesman Matthew Brelis tells The Weather Channel.

Already, he says about 30% of today's flights at Boston have been canceled, with The Weather Channel adding there will be few flights operating in Boston after 7 p.m. ET.

"We're telling folks to call their airline and check on their flight status before they head to the airport. That's really important," Brelis says.