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Monday flight woes: 2,800+ cancellations, 7,000 delays

Major airlines were waiving rebooking fees at a number of airports across the region.

Travelers faced more flight woes on Monday as a winter storm wreaked havoc on flights across the Midwest. 

The wintry weather compounded problems that began for air travelers on Sunday, when more than 1,285 flights were canceled across the USA. Major airlines were waiving rebooking fees at a number of airports across the region.

On Monday, more than 2,800 flights had been canceled nationwide and another 7,071 delayed as of 11:45 p.m. ET, according to flight-tracking service FlightAware.com

Most of those came in the Midwest, where wintry weather that began Sunday continued to affect major hubs in the region.

LIST: Airlines waive change fees for post-Thanksgiving storm

In Chicago, more than 1,300 combined arrivals and departures had been grounded Monday at the city’s busy O’Hare airport. That cancellation tally accounted for about a third of all the day’s flights at O’Hare, a major connecting hub for both American and United.

Monday’s added to the misery of flyers who were stranded there on the busy post-Thanksgiving Sunday, when another 800 cancellations were counted at the USA’s third-busiest airport.

USA TODAY TRAVEL: American Airlines reduces options for travelers with delayed, canceled flights

It all came as millions of air travelers were trying to make their way home on Sunday, the busiest travel day of the Thanksgiving holiday period.

But it wasn’t just O’Hare where travelers ran into problems.

Across town at Chicago’s Midway Airport, 63 combined arrivals and departures and been scrubbed on Monday. That followed the cancellation of about 120 flights there on Sunday.

In Kansas City, Missouri, thousands of stranded travelers are hoping for better flight schedules Monday after major disruptions there a day earlier. The airport halted all flight operations for about four hours on Sunday amid blizzard conditions, leading to the cancellation of about half of the airport’s entire flight schedule for the day.

TRAVELERS: Check flight status here

For Monday, about 30 departures – roughly 14 percent of the day’s schedule – had already been grounded as of 4:45 p.m. ET. Still, Kansas City’s flight schedule appeared to be improving as airlines got their crews and airplanes back into place.

Other Midwestern airports saw another day of backups Monday after suffering significant delays and cancellations on Sunday. Among those: Detroit; Milwaukee; Columbus, Ohio; Omaha, Nebraska; and Cedar Rapids and Des Moines in Iowa. 

Several cities in the Northeast also were suffering from high delay counts Monday as cloudy, windy conditions affected flights there. At New York LaGuardia, about a third of the day's flights were behind schedule. At Newark Liberty and Boston, about 1 out of every 4 flights was late. Other airports seeing numerous delays included Washington Reagan National, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Buffalo. 

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