Record cold grounds more than 1,500 flights, UPS, USPS suspend some deliveries

Brutal cold that can cause frostbite within a few minutes continued to blast the Midwest and hit the Northeast on Thursday, snarling air travel and suspending package deliveries.

Airlines canceled more than 1,400 flights on Thursday at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, more than half of the daily schedule at the United Airlines and American Airlines hub, as it was too cold for ramp workers to access and service many aircraft. More than 40 percent of the schedule, or 237 flights at Chicago Midway International Airport, were canceled, according to flight-tracking site FlightAware. Hundreds of other flights were canceled in Chicago on Wednesday due to the cold.

Temperatures at O'Hare at 5:30 a.m. were minus 21 degrees Fahrenheit, with wind chills of 37 degrees below zero, the National Weather Service said.

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Delta Air Lines, American, United, Spirit Airlines and JetBlue Airways said they would waive date-change fees for travelers affected by the severe weather. Southwest Airlines, which doesn't have date-change fees, said it wouldn't charge travelers booked in and out of more than two dozen U.S. airports the fare difference to fly at a later date due to the extreme weather. Southwest canceled 410 flights on Thursday, about 10 percent of its schedule.

While aircraft can take generally take off in low temperatures, the bitter cold limits how long ground workers can remain loading baggage or servicing aircraft.

Delta, which operates hubs in Minneapolis and Detroit, prepared for the frigid conditions by increasing staffing of ground workers. More employees can take more frequent breaks indoors, as well as moving some aircraft into heated hangars overnight, said spokesman Michael Thomas.

The low temperatures also curtailed some package deliveries in certain areas of the Midwest and Northeast.

United Parcel Service said it had suspended package deliveries and pickups in parts of upstate New York and across a wide swath of the Midwest for safety reasons as temperatures remained low and federal forecasters warned of "dangerously low wind chill values." UPS listed affected areas by zip codes in the Midwest and New York on its website.

For its part, UPS rival FedEx closed some of its offices early, including in Chicago and Detroit, scaled back some service in cities across the Midwest. It said "our priority is always safety and providing service to the best of our ability."

The United States Postal Service suspended deliveries to some cities in the Midwest on Thursday "to ensure the safety and well-being of our employees."

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