"I want everyone to understand that we are facing – most likely – one of the largest snowstorms in the history of this city."
That was the ominous message from New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio this weekend and the nation’s airlines have heeded the warning, with thousands of flights preemptively canceled Monday.
The first major storm of 2015 is expected to dump three feet of snow on Boston and New York with winter storm warnings in effect from Canada to New Jersey.
Major US airlines are waiving change fees for flights due to depart Monday and Tuesday.
"At this point, we plan to cancel all flights Tuesday at Newark, LaGuardia and JFK, as well as Boston and Philadelphia," United Airlines spokeswoman Mary Ryan said.
"For Tuesday, airlines have already canceled over 1,000 flights and we expect this number to rise very significantly over the next day or two, reaching thousands of cancellations across the Northeast," flight tracking service FlightAware said in a media bulletin.
The storm, described as ‘historic’ and ‘life threatening’ will hit the Northeast Corridor Monday afternoon through Tuesday with stark warnings for commuters to stay at home with wind gusts of up to 65 miles per hour.
