US weather: Storm sweeping across America and Canada grounds thousands of flights

A deadly winter storm sweeping across the Midwest to the East Coast, including parts of Canada, has caused more than 1,700 flights to be cancelled.

The winter storm is responsible for the heavy mix of snow, ice, and heavy rain sweeping from Minnesota to Maine, and parts of southern Canada, on Tuesday morning.

LaGuardia Airport in New York City had the worst impact with the storm, forced to cancel more than 470 flights scheduled to depart and arrive at the airport, which is about 40 per cent of its scheduled flights.

Over 800 flights were cancelled at Chicago’s O’Hare International, New York’s John F Kennedy International, and Toronto’s Pearson International Airport.

As of Tuesday morning, more than 680 additional flights were delayed.

Several airline companies announced that it would be waiving the fees last-minute flight changes for customers flying to or from airports impacted by the winter storm.

American Airlines said it would waive fees for date changes on tickets heading to or flying from 32 airports across the Northeastern parts of the United States and southern Canada. Other airlines, including Delta, United, and JetBlue, announced similar fee-waiving policy exceptions.

Although Southwest Airlines does not charge fees of changing travel dates, it would waive fare-differences for travelers impacted by the storm.