Flight cancellations spike Friday, near 8,000 for the week

There was hope that calmer weather on Friday would lead to a smooth day for air travel after a week that saw airlines ground at least 1,000 flights for six consecutive days.

Now, Friday is inching close to making that seven days in a row.

Friday morning did get off to a relatively good start, but cancellations then spiked Friday afternoon after a new round of wintry weather began to affect Texas, including the busy Dallas/Fort Worth airport.

More than 800 flights had been grounded nationwide and another 3,600 delayed as of 7 p.m. ET, according to flight-tracking service FlightAware. Those totals were still growing by late Friday afternoon. With that, the total number of U.S. flight cancellations since Saturday is now nearing 8,000.

The bulk of Friday's cancellations came at Dallas/Fort Worth, which already had been hit by two other winter storms this week. About a third of Friday's flights had been canceled there as of 7 p.m. ET.

In a statement put out at about 3:30 p.m. ET, DFW airport said:

"Runways at DFW Airport remain operational this afternoon despite over an inch of snow that has fallen at the Airport. However, the snowfall is causing a slowdown in flight operations due to de-icing requirements for departures."

"DFW is currently treating runways and monitoring for problem areas, and the Airport has deployed its fleet of pavement treatment trucks and snow plows to keep the airfield operational. Airline crews are de-icing every departure this afternoon while the snow is falling."

"DFW Airport advises all customers with flights or anyone meeting flights to stay updated with the latest flight information."

"As of 2:30 PM, airlines serving DFW had cancelled over 200 departures and over 240 arrivals at DFW Airport."

Beyond DFW, most cancellations were widely scattered nationwide across a number of other airports. However, some airports – mostly in Texas and the Deep South – suffered more substantial disruptions. Among the airports where a large portion of day's schedule had been canceled were: Abilene, Texas; Amarillo, Texas; Huntsville, Ala.; and Midland, Texas.

Elsewhere, delays – not cancellations – were a major nuisance at some big-city airports. Between 15% and 20% of Friday's flights were delayed at several airports, including New York LaGaurdia, Philadelphia and, San Francisco. Between 10% and 15% of the day's schedule was running late at Chicago O'Hare, Dallas Love, Denver, Houston Bush Intercontinental and Washington Reagan National.