Airlines Cancel Over 10,000 US Flights Due To Massive Winter Storm (cnbc.com) 16
"Airlines canceled more than 10,000 U.S. flights scheduled for this weekend," reports CNBC, "as a massive winter storm sweeps across the country, with heavy snow and sleet forecast, followed by bitter cold... set to snarl travel for hundreds of thousands of people for days."
More than 3,500 flights on Saturday were canceled, according to flight tracker FlightAware. Many of Saturday's cancellations were in and out of Dallas Fort Worth International Airport, with about 1,300 scrubbed flights, and at Dallas Love Field, with 186 cancellations, the majority of the schedule at each airport. American Airlines, based in Fort Worth, Texas, had canceled 902 Saturday flights, about 30% of its mainline schedule and Southwest Airlines canceled 571 flights, or 19%, according to FlightAware.
U.S. flight cancellations nearly doubled to more than 7,000 [now up to 8,947] on Sunday when the storm is expected to hit the mid-Atlantic and Northeast U.S. As of midday on Saturday, most flights from Raleigh-Durham International Airport in North Carolina to Portland, Maine, were canceled. Major airline hubs were affected as far south as Atlanta, where Delta Air Lines is based.... American, Delta, JetBlue Airways, Southwest Airlines, United Airlines and other U.S. carriers said they are waiving change and cancellation fees as well as fare differences to rebook for customers with tickets to and from more than 40 airports around the country. The waivers include restrictive basic economy tickets.
More than 80% of Sunday's flights at New York's LaGuardian Airport were cancelled, according to the article, at well as 90% of Sunday's flights at Viriginia's Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.
U.S. flight cancellations nearly doubled to more than 7,000 [now up to 8,947] on Sunday when the storm is expected to hit the mid-Atlantic and Northeast U.S. As of midday on Saturday, most flights from Raleigh-Durham International Airport in North Carolina to Portland, Maine, were canceled. Major airline hubs were affected as far south as Atlanta, where Delta Air Lines is based.... American, Delta, JetBlue Airways, Southwest Airlines, United Airlines and other U.S. carriers said they are waiving change and cancellation fees as well as fare differences to rebook for customers with tickets to and from more than 40 airports around the country. The waivers include restrictive basic economy tickets.
More than 80% of Sunday's flights at New York's LaGuardian Airport were cancelled, according to the article, at well as 90% of Sunday's flights at Viriginia's Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.
New York's LaGuardian Airpor (Score:2)
Say what
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Any Brit can tell you that it's spelled LaGrauniad, innit.
I knew it was bad (Score:2, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Ted Cruz is actually smart.
He just purports evil and moronic stuff to be popular in Texas (the ass of the USA... New Jersey is the armpit and Florida is a dick.)
He lost his spine after he quit being the zodiac killer when he found a replacement for human blood to maintain his human-like form.
Most flights from RDU to PDM canceled (Score:3)
I think what they mean by "most flights from Raleigh-Durham International Airport in North Carolina to Portland, Maine, were canceled" is that airports north of Raleigh and south of Portland have canceled most of their flights. As RDU->PDM is operated by Breeze on Mondays and Fridays only, then taking it literally means a remarkably small percentage of US flights. Breeze have very nice A220s.
Surprised by the number? (Score:4, Insightful)
There are about 27k commercial flights daily in the USA. 10k is a huge number.
Prudent (if not ideal for travelers) (Score:3)
Re:Prudent (if not ideal for travelers) (Score:4, Informative)
It's not even a case of hubs. It's a case of risk assessing the region climate. Capabilities vary depending on risk.
In areas like Chicago where bad weather is expected regularly they are setup to handle it. Chicago can process just shy of 60 aircraft an hour in freezing conditions (that includes clearing runway of snow, and de-icing aircraft prior to take-off). This allows them to operate relatively close to normal capacity during storm (at least as far as snow and ice is concerned, there may be other factors).
Not sure about other US airports, but compare that to northern Europe where at Amsterdam airport snow is a rarity and averages less than 2 inches per year, usually spread out over 3-4 different snowfall events. This 2nd biggest hub in the EU (and one which by flight movement is about 4/5th of Chicago's) is able to process about 4 planes an hour causing complete chaos every time a hint of white powder falls from the sky.
But it comes down to cost to mitigate an event vs cost to put up with it.