Over 3,200 US Flights Grounded in View of Major Blizzard

Possibilities are that your flight may have already been canceled if you’ve an airline ticket to travel on Monday. And your chances of traveling on Tuesday might be even worse.

Reacting to a major snowstorm that’s expected to thrash parts of the Northeast airlines cancelled more than 3,200 flights — a move that came even before the first snowflakes began falling.

As of 11 p.m. ET on Sunday, various airlines had grounded 1,717 flights for Monday and another 1,492 for Tuesday. United, the nation’s second-busiest carrier, said it expected to halt all its Tuesday operations at several of the region’s busiest airports. US Airways, in the process of merging with American, also planned to halt Tuesday operations at certain airports in the region.

Passengers with flights to or through the region should brace for major disruptions — not only through Tuesday, but possibly through the remainder of the week. Even if airlines are able to resume flights on Wednesday, flights schedules could restart unevenly.

Delta Air Lines, which has hubs at both New York LaGuardia and New York JFK, confirmed on Sunday evening that it had grounded about 600 flights for Monday. United, which has hubs at Newark Liberty and Washington Dulles, said it planned to sharply curtail its operations at Newark beginning Monday evening.

“We plan to operate a full schedule at our Washington Dulles hub on Monday, but will limit operations beginning Monday evening at our Newark hub, LaGuardia and JFK,” United said in a Sunday evening statement.

For Monday, most of the preemptive cancellations by carriers like American, Delta and United appeared to come on flights operated by their regional affiliates that fly feeder flights on smaller aircraft.

JetBlue had canceled more than 730 flights across Monday and Tuesday. That carrier’s two biggest hubs — New York JFK and Boston Logan — each were forecast to see blizzard conditions. JetBlue’s biggest chunk of cancellations was set for Tuesday, with more than 460 flights already canceled.

Even Amtrak warned of problems.

“With extreme conditions expected in some areas over the next 24 to 36 hours, crews are actively monitoring the latest forecasts and planning for the possibility that service adjustments may be necessary,” the rail carrier said in a Sunday evening warning.

As for the airlines, nearly every big carrier had at least one hub expected to see poor weather from the storm. Even flights outside the storm’s path are at risk. A flight from Nashville to Phoenix, for example, could become delayed or canceled if the aircraft or crew operating that flight gets knocked off schedule by the snow in the Northeast.

Source: Travel & Tour World