Deja vu: Airlines already canceling flights for Wednesday

Last update: 6 p.m. ET.

Air travelers faced a fourth consecutive day of flight headaches Tuesday. And Wednesday was set to make it five in a row, with airlines already cancelling flights from yet another round of winter weather.

About 875 flights were canceled Tuesday and another 3,325 delayed as of 5:30 p.m. ET, according to flight-tracking service FlightAware.

And, in what's become a familiar story for passengers, airlines again had begun to preemptively cancel flights a day in advance an anticipation of more poor weather. About 225 flights had already been canceled for Wednesday.

Most of those came at Dallas/Fort Worth and Charlotte, two airports recovering from with wintry weather on Tuesday. Another system was expected to affect those airports and others in the South on Wednesday.

Combined, about 5,500 flights have been canceled since the latest series of storms began snarling flights on Saturday. That was sure to grow even more on Wednesday, with bad weather forecast to affect airports from Texas through the mid-Atlantic from into Thursday.

Airlines had waived change fees for customers ticketed to fly into airports experiencing poor weather. The policies varied by airline, though they generally allowed customers to make one change without paying the customary change fee.

Tuesday's problems were focused on the Southeast, where a mix of snow and ice had fallen at airports from the Carolinas into Alabama and Mississippi. Conditions were poor Tuesday from north Georgia and east Tennessee into the Carolinas, and could become messy again on Wednesday.

At Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International, about 300 flights had been canceled as of 5:30 p.m. ET. Many of those were preemptively announced Monday night. Atlanta was expected to be on the cusp of the rain-snow line again on Wednesday.

Light snow fell earlier Tuesday in Charlotte – a major hub for American and merger partner US Airways – but the cancellation tally checked in at a relatively low 80 flights as of 5:30 p.m. ET. Problems were a bit worse at Raleigh-Durham, where about 15% of the day's schedule had been grounded. In Charleston, S.C., about a third of the day's schedule had been grounded and about 25% in Wilmington, N.C. Cancellations also had cropped at several airports from Mississippi through eastern Tennessee and into the Carolinas and southern Virginia. Those areas could see a new round of snow or ice on Wednesday.

At Dallas/Fort Worth, about 100 departures and 140 arrivals had been canceled for Tuesday as the metro area suffered residual effects from Monday's ice storm that lasted into the morning. That represented more than 10% of the airport's schedule Tuesday, though schedules had improved by late afternoon. Unfortunately, another ice storm was possible at DFW again on Wednesday.

Indeed, preemptive cancellations were already popping up for Wednesday, with about 150 cancellations already in the books as of 5:40 p.m. ET.