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Shannon Rae Green reports on flight cancellations and forecast snow totals across the east coast as snow flakes fall outside of the USA TODAY newsroom. (USA NOW, USA TODAY)
Last update: 12:30 p.m. ET on Wednesday, Nov. 26. Next update: By 3 p.m. ET
Flight schedules for this year's busy day before Thanksgiving took a hit before the day even began.
Airlines scrapped more than 210 flights for Wednesday -- one of the USA's busiest air travel days of the year -- all before the clock struck midnight on Tuesday. All told, flight-tracking service FlightAware counted 214 Wednesday cancellations as of 11:50 p.m. ET on Tuesday.
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That number grew even more on Wednesday morning, climbing to about 550 as of 12:30 p.m. ET, according to FlightAware.
U.S. carriers have increasingly decided to preemptively cancel flights in recent years when poor weather was forecast to hit busy airports, and that trend appears to be playing out again for this latest storm. Wednesday's preemptive cancellations came as an approaching winter storm threatened to snarl flights at the peak of the Thanksgiving travel rush.
Nearly a third of Wednesday's cancellations came at just three airports: New York LaGuardia, Newark Liberty and Philadelphia. More than 11% of Wednesday's entire schedule had already been grounded at Newark, LaGuardia and Philadelphia airports as of 12:30 p.m. ET, according to flight-tracking service FlightAware. A number of those cancellations were made Tuesday evening.
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Washington Reagan National, Boston, New York JFK, Westchester County, N.Y., Hartford, Conn., and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton were among other airports that had an unusual number of preemptive cancellations for Wednesday.
All of those airports are in the path of a storm that's bring mess weather and strong winds to East Coast's biggest cities. Still, more than 200 of Wednesday's cancellations came even before the first rain drops or snowflakes fell in those cities.
Regional airlines were hit hardest by Wednesday's cancellations. Of the 550 counted by FlightAware as of 11:20 a.m. Wednesday, more than 430 were on regional carriers like Shuttle America, ExpressJet and Republic. Those carriers fly as regional affiliates for the nation's big airlines, including American, Delta and United.
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JetBlue had already canceled 38 Wednesday flights, the most among the big "mainline" airlines as of 9:25 a.m. ET on Wednesday. Southwest had 22 Wednesday cancellations, American/US Airways 18, Delta 14 and United 6, according to FlightAware. The numbers for American, Delta and United all are dramatically higher when their regional affiliates are included in the count.
FlightAware CEO Daniel Baker said in an e-mail Tuesday evening that "we expect the number of cancellations to rise" and predicted "thousands of delays ... will cause moderate disruption to Thanksgiving travelers."
Baker added that "due to the holiday, flights will be more full and there will be fewer available seats to accommodate displaced passengers, exacerbating the situation."
Precipitation in the East's big cities began as rain in coastal areas, though snow had mixed with rain by late morning in Washington, New York and Philadelphia.
As much as a half-foot of snow was possible north and west of the New York City area, but smaller totals were likely for Manhattan. Totals for the other big cities included 1 to 3 inches in Boston. More rain than snow seemed likely for Washington, Baltimore and Philadelphia -- though Washington's Dulles airport is far enough west that accumulating snow was expected.
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In anticipation of the poor weather, nearly every big U.S. airline had moved by Tuesday afternoon to waive rebooking fees to cities in the storm's path.
The delay-prone airports of New York JFK, New York LaGuardia, Newark Liberty and Philadelphia seemed all but sure to experience additional weather disruptions Wednesday. The airports in those cities typically struggle with delays and cancellations even in moderate wind and precipitation. Those airports would be unlikely to see flights come to a halt in Wednesday's expected conditions, but dozens of cancellations and hundreds of delays were possible at each airport by the day's end.
In Boston, the city's Logan International Airport typically continues mostly normal operations even in moderate snow. But if the Nor'easter's track changes, heavier snow or icy conditions could lead to problems. Heavier snow farther inland could disrupt operations if airport and airline workers are unable to get to the airport from Boston's suburbs. In interior New England, airports remained on alert as up to a foot of snow was forecast to blanket the region on Wednesday.
In the mid-Atlantic, the busy Washington Dulles, Washington Reagan National and Baltimore/Washington airports typically can handle light snow with few problems.
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