Blizzard flight woes: Nearly 11,000 cancellations (and counting)
It's shaping up to be a rough week for air travel
Flight schedules ground to a virtual halt across the region Monday as a major winter storm slammed the Northeast, where blizzard warnings were effect from Delaware into New England.
More than 5,600 flights had been cancelled in the U.S. as of 2:40 p.m. EST, according to flight-tracking service FlightAware. That follows 3,440 cancellations on Sunday – many of those made preemptively – as the storm began to intensify.
Unfortunately for travelers, disruptions from the storm – dubbed Hernando by The Weather Channel – were likely to last for at least another day.
Carriers had already cancelled 1,850 flights for Tuesday and another 43 for Wednesday – totals that had been climbing.
All told, more than 10,300 flights had been canceled across the U.S. since Sunday – the vast majority coming at airports in Hernando's path.
Airlines rolled out weather waivers for the storm, easing restrictions on changing or rescheduling flights at airports hit by Hernando. Details varied by carrer, with more details available from each airline's website:
- Alaska Airlines
- Allegiant Air
- American Airlines
- Delta Air Lines
- Frontier Airlines
- JetBlue Airways
- Southwest Airlines
- Spirit Airlines
- United Airlines
Monday's hardest hit airports on Monday were the three serving metro New York – John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK), LaGuardia Airport (LGA) and Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) and Boston's Logan International Airport (BOS). Few flights operated from those airports on Monday.
It wasn't much better at Philadelphia International Airport (PHL), where more than 80% of departures were scrapped, according to FlightAware. More than 40% of departures were canceled at Washington's Reagan National Airport (DCA).
Beyond that, schedules were grounded at numerous smaller airports across the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast.