Tuesday was the worst travel day yet from a late-season winter storm that’s forced the cancellation of nearly 9,000 flights since Sunday.

Airlines moved quickly to pare their Tuesday schedules ahead of the storm, which had been forecast to bring crippling conditions to much of the Northeast. Carriers preemptively axed 5,300 flights for the day, all before midnight Monday, according to flight-tracking service FlightAware. About 900 more had been canceled as of 6 p.m. ET, putting the total for the day at about 6,170. That was even though snowfall totals were significantly less than initial forecasts for New York, Boston, Washington and Philadelphia.

Nearly all flights were canceled at the three big airports serving New York City, with few expected to operate at JFK, LaGuardia and Newark Liberty airports. Similar problems were seen at smaller airports across parts of New York state, eastern Pennsylvania and New England where snowfall totals were higher. (Scroll down for links to airline wavier policies now in effect)

At the airports in Boston and Baltimore, most of Tuesday’s flights also had already been canceled before the day even began. Three of the region’s other major airports – Philadelphia, Washington Dulles and Washington Reagan National – also saw major disruptions, with between 40% and 60% of the day’s schedule preemptively canceled, according to FlightAware. Even Chicago saw storm-related cancellations continue for a second consecutive day, with about 870 at O'Hare as of 6 p.m. ET and another 100 across town at Midway Airport. Those totals accounted for about a third of all flights at O'Hare and about 15% of all flights at Midway.

Wednesday was expected to see some recovery, but carriers had already canceled more flights. More than 635 flights were grounded before the end of Monday and another 270 were added to the tally by early Tuesday afternoon.

"We expect this number to rise significantly for Wednesday morning as airlines get their operations back online," FlightAware CEO Daniel Baker said in a Tuesday morning statement.

he speed of the recovery could depend on whether the storm is as bad as forecast, which now appeared unlikely in all of the East's biggest cities. While up to 18 inches had been forecast across much of the region, rain and sleet have mixed in and depressed snow totals in New York, Washington and Philadelphia. In New York, a blizzard warning was lifted as snow switched over to sleet for part of the morning. Boston also appeared unlikely to get massive snow accumulations that initially had been predicted.

Cumulatively, airlines have canceled about 9,000 flights since the storm first began snarling Midwest flights on Sunday. Nationwide, FlightAware counted 210 flights cancellations on Sunday; 1,661 on Monday; 6,172 (so far) on Tuesdayl; and 902 (so far) on Tuesday.

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