Airlines ground 5,400 flights as new work week begins

Air travelers faced major disruptions for the second Monday in a row as yet another winter storm snarled flights. More than 5,450 flights have been canceled since Sunday, including nearly 2,900 on Monday as the business week gets underway. Additionally, most big airlines had issued weather waivers that allowed passengers flying to airports in the storm's path to change their flight plans without paying the standard change fees. Carriers issuing weather waivers included American, Delta, Frontier, JetBlue, Spirit, Southwest, United, US Airways and Virgin America. Details, dates and cites covered by the waivers varied by airline. The weather mess for air travel also comes as an exodus of Super Bowl fliers is set to begin today from Phoenix, which had its own difficult weather Sunday. More than 115 flights – about 7% of the entire day's schedule – were canceled there Sunday as fog at the airport slowed Phoenix flights. Super Bowl travelers trying to get home on Monday from Phoenix could run into even more problems, especially if they're bound for Boston or connecting via a hub city like Chicago, Detroit or New York. Those were among the hardest-hit airports on Monday. Chicago O'Hare topped the list with nearly 800 cancellations as of 9:35 a.m. ET, according to flight-tracking service FlightAware. That follows a Sunday in which nearly 1,400 flights – about 70% of Sunday's entire schedule – were grounded at O'Hare. With two consecutive days of widespread disruptions, there could be a backlog of stranded fliers looking to snag new flights from Chicago.