Hundreds of flights cancelled as winter storm throws airports across US out of gear

A winter storm that lashed the Midwest and north-eastern United States has resulted in widespread cancellations and delays of flights, upsetting travel plans for thousands of passengers.

Many US airports were shut down and several hundred flights were cancelled on December 19, 2008.

Over 500 flights were cancelled at airports across New York state.

Regarding the three international airports in the New York area, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said there were 374 cancellations in Newark Liberty International Airport – the highest number among the three airports. In all, 45 flights were cancelled at John F Kennedy International Airport, and 140 flights were cancelled at LaGuardia Airport.

Delays averaging anywhere from 45 minutes to about three and a half hours were reported at the three airports in the New York area, where the United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) put a “traffic management programme” into effect to measure the flow of flights into and out of the city as the storm reduced flight capacity there.

General Mitchell International Airport in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, was shut down, and areas in southern Wisconsin received about 30 centimetres of snow, US media reports said.

Snow and ice disrupted functioning of other major international airports such as O’Hare International in Chicago, where flights were at least three hours late.

Flight delays were reported in Detroit and Philadelphia, the media quoted the Federal Aviation Administration as saying.

The US National Weather Service said that the latest storm was a part of the same weather system that brought snow to Las Vegas on December 18, 2008, causing the lowest temperatures for 20 years in some areas.

Chicago was hit the hardest by snow and ice, leading to operations going haywire at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport and Midway Airport.

The 10 centimetres of snow that fell late on December 17 on McCarran Airport in Las Vegas was the second highest total since 1967 and the highest for the month of December since records began in 1937, the National Weather Service said.

American Airlines, which has a hub at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago, said it cancelled 45 round-trip flights from O’Hare Airport because of bad weather. Delays ranged from 30 minutes to an hour. The carrier also cancelled some flights in New York and Boston in anticipation of winter storms.

Meanwhile, several airlines are offering customers the option to reschedule flights, but, according to reports, with planes expected to be nearly full on some days, finding an open seat could be very difficult.

Alaska Airlines said that passengers scheduled to fly in and out of Seattle through December 19, 2008, can reschedule travel through December 23, 2008, with no penalities, or get a refund. Most flights of Alaska Airlines and its sister concern Horizon Air were operating normally, a spokesman of the company said.

Continental Airlines said that customers scheduled to travel to, from, or through the affected airports, including its New York hub in Newark, could postpone or reroute their trip without penalty through December 26, 2008.

United Airlines offered similar concessions for flights through New York, Philadelphia, Illinois, Iowa and Wisconsin.

Southwest Airlines said it was giving its customers the chance to rebook within 14 days of their original date of travel. Southwest cancelled 115 flights, mainly in and of out Spokane, Chicago and Oklahoma City.