Flight delays, cancellations worsen at NY, NJ airports amid lingering storms
Tuesday is set to be another tough day for New York City area travelers amid lingering storms in the area.
As of Tuesday morning, here’s a count of delays and cancellations for outbound flights at JFK, LaGuardia, and Newark Airports.
NEWARK
There are 135 canceled flights and seven are currently delayed.
LAGUARDIA
There are 63 canceled flights and 16 are currently delayed.
JFK
There are 21 canceled flights and 31 are currently delayed.
Officials report United Airlines stands at around 300 flights canceled, which makes up 10 percent of the airline’s schedule. Newark acts as one of the airline’s eight hubs in the United States.
Airports across the country will be impacted, as airlines try to get operations running normally after bad weather and some technological issues in the Midwest and east coast.
Passengers at LaGuardia expressed their frustrations Monday. Many waited hours as their flights kept getting delayed, only for them to be eventually canceled.
“They were sending us notices it’s delayed, it’s delayed, it’s delayed…now it’s canceled. Next flight out? Thursday,” said Maryann McGinniss.
A plane pulled into the gate at LaGuardia on Monday evening after a ‘two-hour twenty-minute odyssey around the network of taxiways.
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The plane’s destination should have been Dallas, but its passengers and their bags wound up right back where they started.
“Well, the worst part of it, it was like 100 degrees in there. It was really hot,” said Eddie Monaco.
Monaco, from Yonkers, was on that flight. Eyewitness News found him searching for his luggage, along with crowds of other frustrated travelers who were bumped from the hundreds of flights that were cancelled at LaGuardia for the day.
“It’s not raining at home and it’s not raining here, so I’m just confused why planes are not flying,” said Destiny Mayes.
The taxiways were bone dry, but the airport was surrounded by dark clouds as lines of dangerous storms have crawled up the East Coast for days, leaving planes, flight crews and customers stranded.
“In addition to the bad weather problems, we’re in the peak of the vacation season and we’re approaching July 4, so all these flights are booked close to or are completely full, so there’s very little slack in terms of empty seats to accommodate people,” said Aviation Analyst Henry Harteveldt.
Usually, short regional flights on Monday became weeklong odysseys.
Ray Chambers was trying to make a business meeting in Toronto. He missed it while stuck in a metal tube for hours on the tarmac before the pilots gave up.
“It left around 1:30, and we got back to the gate around 6:30. How long is the flight to Toronto? One hour! One hour! One hour!” Chambers said.