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Airlines cancel hundreds of flights due to winter weather

More than 1,700 flights were canceled Wednesday as many holiday travelers looked to return home while a powerful series of storms advanced on the Northeast.

US Airways canceled 376 flights, according to spokeswoman Michelle Mohr.

"That is out of a total of 3,200 flights on this busy traveling day," she said.

United Airlines called off 225 flights while Delta Air Lines had 200 cancellations, officials said.

A flight-tracking website said many flights across the country were called off for weather and mechanical reasons. According to FlightAware.com, 1,761 flights were canceled Wednesday, with more than 310 Thursday flights already taken off the schedule.

American Airlines canceled 500 flights Wednesday, spokesman Matt Miller said.

About 375 of those flights were at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport., where more than 1,000 passengers spent Christmas night after their Tuesday flights were called off, CNN affiliate WFAA reported.

"Yesterday's rapid snowfall, ice and winds required us to implement a deicing program and severely hampered our ability to safely service aircraft as we normally would," airport spokeswoman Cynthia Vega told the station.

Blustery bands of precipitation moved through the mid-Atlantic states Wednesday, threatening to bring snowstorms and blizzards to the Northeast. Some places could expect to see more than a foot of snow, according to CNN meteorologist Bonnie Schneider.

Philadelphia International Airport had some arrival delays of more than four hours Wednesday, the Federal Aviation Administration said.

Several airports in the New York City area were reporting delays of more than one hour, with Newark International Airport experiencing an average delay of almost three hours. Flights bound for LaGuardia Airport were more than two hours behind.

Greyhound listed almost 50 canceled bus routes on its website. Another interstate bus carrier, Megabus, said 11 of its routes were affected.

Amtrak listed only one service disruption, because of a mudslide in the Pacfic Northwest, on amtrak.com.

Travelers are advised to check before leaving home to see if their flights are postponed or canceled.

(first published in CNN on December 27, 2012)