Blizzard snarls air travel along U.S. East Coast as airlines cancel thousands of flights

Airlines canceled thousands of flights through Monday night and waived cancellation and change fees for airports spanning Virginia to Maine as another massive winter storm bears down on the East Coast, set to once again put carriers to the test at the tail-end of winter break.
The National Weather Service issued a blizzard warning for much of New Jersey, the New York City area, and parts of Maryland, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts. The storm could dump more than 2 feet of snow in some areas as well as bring wind gusts nearly 50 miles per hour. The NWS warned that travel will be trecherous with low visibility.
About two-thirds of the flights to New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport and LaGuardia Airport were canceled on Sunday as were more than 40% of the departures, according to FlightAware.
Disruptions are set to worsen on Monday with snow continuining to fall. More than 3,800 flights on Monday, or 15% of the scheduled U.S. departures, were canceled, according to aviation-data firm Cirium. Usually daily cancellations are around 1%.
More than 90% of the departures from LaGuardia Airport, Boston Logan Airport and 80% of those from Philadelphia and Kennedy Airport on Monday were canceled Monday.
Sunday’s cancellation rate was about 10% as of 6:10 p.m. ET, according to Cirium.
Airlines routinely cancel flights ahead of major storms to avoid having aircraft and crews out of place and to make it easier to restart operations after the storm passes.
Delta Air Lines, American Airlines, JetBlue Airways, United Airlines and Spirit Airlines waived fees and fare differences for passengers if they can travel as late as Feb. 26. Southwest Airlines said customers are eligible for a change without paying a difference in fare if they can rebook to fly or fly standby within two weeks.
Winter Storm Fern in January, followed by bitter cold, caused mass travel disruptions across a large swath of the U.S.