Cancellations soar past 2,000 as storm heads east
Updated: 9:15 p.m.ET.
Fliers faced headaches across the Great Lakes and Northeast Wednesday as a potent storm brought snow to the Midwest and severe weather to the East.
Nationwide, more than 2,250 flights had been canceled by early Wednesday evening and nearly all big U.S. carrier had enacted flexible rebooking policies. And more than 150 flights had already been preemptively canceled for Thursday as airlines scrambled to get their planes and crews back into place.
The worst of Wednesday’s problems came in snowy Chicago, though cancellations in the East began to spike Wednesday afternoon as a line of severe weather pushed East.
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At Chicago O'Hare, more than 960 flights had been canceled at O’Hare airport as of 9:15 p.m. ET, according to flight-tracking service FlightAware. That figure accounted for about 40% of the entire day’s schedule at the airport, a major hub for both United and American.
There were similar problems at Midway airport, one of the busiest bases for Southwest Airlines. About 335 flights – more than half of the day’s schedule there – had been canceled as of 9:15 p.m. ET. Southwest had grounded all of its Wednesday evening flights, according to WLS-TV of Chicago.
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But problems also began proliferating in the East on Wednesday evening.
All three of New York City's major airports saw significant disruptions. More than 325 flights -- about 1 out of every 4 -- had been grounded and even more delayed at LaGuardia. About 15% of the day's flights had been canceled at Newark and about 10% at JFK, according to FlightAware.
In Washington, cancellations jumped at Reagan National Airport thanks to a long line of thunderstorms that stretched from the North Carolina into Pennsylvania by early evenng., blocking many flights paths the region. More than 140 flights (about 14% of the schedule) had been canceled as of 9:15 p.m. ET.
Cancellation tallies began pushing close to 10% of the day's schedule at Washington Dulles and Baltimore/Washington International airports, with delays were affecting even more flights.
Even flight schedules at Boston Logan began to buckle by Wednesday evening as storm's block flight paths there. Nearly 10% of the day's flights had been canceled and more than 170 were delayed.
Back in the Midwest, a number of airports were still trying to recover from Wednesday morning's snowy weather.
More than 10% of the day’s flights had been grounded at Cleveland, one of numerous Great Lakes experience feeling the effects of the storm Wednesday. In Flint, Mich., nearly 40% of the day’s flights had been grounded as of 5:30 p.m. ET, according to FlightAware.
Nearly 1 out of every 5 flights had been canceled at Michigan’s Gerald R. Ford International Airport in Grand Rapids. Further west, a similar percentage of flights had been grounded at the Eastern Iowa Airport near Cedar Rapids.
Most big airlines had issued had winter-weather policies for customers traveling through airports affected by the storm. Exact details varied by carrier, but -- generally -- the policies allow customers to make one change to their itineraries without paying change fees or recalculated fares.
Most waivers covered airports in the Great Lakes region, though the policies at United and JetBlue also included airports along the East Coast.
Scroll down for links to each airline's policy:
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