Flights are delayed or canceled after New York floods
Heavy rain and dangerous flash flooding delayed and canceled flights on Friday at La Guardia and Kennedy Airports, with the number of grounded flights also mounting at other airports in the Northeast. Wait times crept up to nearly an hour at Newark Liberty International Airport and Boston Logan International Airport. At Kennedy, the average delay for outbound flights is more than three hours. And the extreme weather hasn’t just kept flights on the ground. At La Guardia, floodwaters began rising in Terminal A, forcing it to close. Terminal A handles, on average, fewer than 10% of La Guardia’s flights, said Amanda Kwan, a spokeswoman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the area’s airports. Mircea Abrantes, 38, and Florence Layne, 66, were on the same flight to Houston from La Guardia on Thursday night, which they both missed. Resigned to catching the next available flight on Friday afternoon, they spent the night hunched over airport benches in the waiting area of Terminal A. Then the deluge struck. Around 9 or 10 a.m., flood water rushed into the terminal, sending travelers running for higher ground, Layne said. Their 12:30 p.m. flight with Spirit Airlines was canceled, the terminal was evacuated, and the women were shuttled to Terminal C. The next available flight to Houston leaves tomorrow afternoon — from Newark. “I can’t take any more of it; I’m just tired,” said Layne, who has abandoned her plans to attend a business convention in Houston. She plans to catch a bus, and then a train, back to her apartment in East Flatbush, Brooklyn. The diminished operations at the area’s airports are not more pronounced then they would be on a typical stormy day, said Ian Petchenik, a spokesman for Flightradar24, a flight-tracking company. But this could change if flights are grounded for a prolonged period, he said.The airspace in and around metro New York is the busiest and most complex in the country, according to the Port Authority. About 30 percent of flights in the United States pass through New York area airports at some point each day, Petchenik said.<br/>
https://portal.staralliance.com/cms/news/hot-topics/2023-10-02/general/flights-are-delayed-or-canceled-after-new-york-floods
https://portal.staralliance.com/cms/logo.png
Flights are delayed or canceled after New York floods
Heavy rain and dangerous flash flooding delayed and canceled flights on Friday at La Guardia and Kennedy Airports, with the number of grounded flights also mounting at other airports in the Northeast. Wait times crept up to nearly an hour at Newark Liberty International Airport and Boston Logan International Airport. At Kennedy, the average delay for outbound flights is more than three hours. And the extreme weather hasn’t just kept flights on the ground. At La Guardia, floodwaters began rising in Terminal A, forcing it to close. Terminal A handles, on average, fewer than 10% of La Guardia’s flights, said Amanda Kwan, a spokeswoman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the area’s airports. Mircea Abrantes, 38, and Florence Layne, 66, were on the same flight to Houston from La Guardia on Thursday night, which they both missed. Resigned to catching the next available flight on Friday afternoon, they spent the night hunched over airport benches in the waiting area of Terminal A. Then the deluge struck. Around 9 or 10 a.m., flood water rushed into the terminal, sending travelers running for higher ground, Layne said. Their 12:30 p.m. flight with Spirit Airlines was canceled, the terminal was evacuated, and the women were shuttled to Terminal C. The next available flight to Houston leaves tomorrow afternoon — from Newark. “I can’t take any more of it; I’m just tired,” said Layne, who has abandoned her plans to attend a business convention in Houston. She plans to catch a bus, and then a train, back to her apartment in East Flatbush, Brooklyn. The diminished operations at the area’s airports are not more pronounced then they would be on a typical stormy day, said Ian Petchenik, a spokesman for Flightradar24, a flight-tracking company. But this could change if flights are grounded for a prolonged period, he said.The airspace in and around metro New York is the busiest and most complex in the country, according to the Port Authority. About 30 percent of flights in the United States pass through New York area airports at some point each day, Petchenik said.<br/>
