Flight Delays Spread as Winter Storm Moves East

Flight schedules took a hit today as a winter storm tracked from the Midwest into the Northeast. Fliers didn't suffer disruptions as severe as the one during the Christmastime storms that brought flights to a halt at several major airports. But, passengers scheduled to fly today (Jan. 28) faced significant in the Midwest, the East Coast and -- as the problems rippled nationwide -- at hubs across the USA.

Flight-tracking service FlightAware says more than 780 U.S. flights were canceled today, with the majority of those coming at airports experiencing poor weather from today's storm.

And, as has become the norm during poor weather, nearly every major airline waived change fees for fliers schedule to fly into the storm's path. The policies come with significant fine print, but generally they allow customers to make one change to their itineraries without having to pay change fees or any differences in fares.

The hardest hit as of 6:50 p.m. ET included several of the Northeast's busiest — and most delay prone — airports. At Newark Liberty, 160 combined departures and arrivals were canceled while the total was 117 at Philadelphia, according to FlightAware. New York LaGuardia's tally was 102.

Other airports that saw notable cancellation totals today : Washington Reagan National (87), Chicago O'Hare (86), Minneapolis/St. Paul (51), and Detroit (51). And, the total of 29 reported at the Eastern Iowa Airport in Cedar Rapids may not seem like much -- but it represented a significant portion of that airport's relatively light flight schedule.

At Boston, which had few cancellations this morning, the figure quickly jumped to about two dozen by 2:30 p.m. Fortunately for fliers there, cancellation figures did not grow much after that.

North of the border, flight schedules took a hit at Toronto's Pearson International, where snow and ice fell this morning. More than 100 flights were canceled there by noon, though few additional cancellations were reported after noon ET at Canada's busiest airport.

And, in Colorado, a number of delays and cancellations were reported as snow fell across parts of the state. At Denver, 29 flights -- a small portion of the airport's schedule -- were canceled today, according to FlightAware. But the 23 cancellations at Aspen represented a much bigger dent to that airport's schedule.