Airlines hammered by storms in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast

A weekend snowstorm – the first big storm of the winter in the populous Mid-Atlantic and Northeast – has caused airlines to delay and cancel thousands of flights since Friday.

The storm has not only dropped more than a foot of snow in some places but is also packing gusty winds and wind chill temperatures in the single digits, if not in negative numbers.

According to the flight tracking service FlightAware.com, there are 5,835 flights delayed on Friday and 975 as of 2 p.m. today, Saturday, on flights into, within or out of the United States. There were 1,458 cancellations on Friday, 3,557 so far today and 1,015 already scrubbed for Sunday.

The totals – 6,810 delayed flights and 6,030 cancellations.

The storm is primarily centered along the I-95 corridor from Washington D.C. north past Boston, meaning highly trafficked airports Washington Reagan National, Washington Dulles, Baltimore-Washington International, Philadelphia International, John F. Kennedy International, LaGuardia, Newark-Liberty, and Boston Logan have all been affected.

But so too have airports that are major hubs for airlines, including in Atlanta, Charlotte, Orlando, Chicago and Miami.

Virtually every U.S. carrier has issued travel waivers to customers, including Delta Air Lines. Delta has issued a travel waiver for those who may be impacted effective Jan. 28-29. The fare difference for customers will be waived when rebooked travel occurs on or before Feb. 1, 2022, in the same cabin of service as originally booked. Any difference in fare between the original ticket and the new ticket will be collected at the time of booking.

“Delta’s Meteorology team in the airline’s Operation and Customer Center will continue to monitor the winter weather and make tactical adjustments as needed,” the airline said on its website.