Storm paralyses travel, forcing more than 8,000 US flight disruptions
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People walk along Manhattan's Times Square during a snowfall in New York City, on Feb 22.
PHOTO: AFP
NEW YORK - US airlines are set to add flights on Feb 24, even as they wrestle with thousands of scrubbed flights the day after a powerful North-east winter storm forced more than 8,000 cancellations and delays.
The storm blanketed parts of the US North-east, closing roads and cancelling schools.
With cancellations frustrating travellers on Feb 23 evening, US carriers including United Airlines said they had early plans to ramp up operations on Feb 24, but cautioned that conditions remain challenging.
On Feb 24, 7 per cent of US flights are expected to be cancelled, down from just over 19 per cent on Feb 23, according to data from analytics firm Cirium as of late afternoon. A typical day in the US domestic market has 1 per cent cancellations.
Southwest Airlines said its plan “is on track to start ramping up operations tomorrow, if conditions permit us to safely do so”.
The Dallas-based low-cost carrier cancelled about 7 per cent of flights on Feb 23. That was less than its rivals due to the carrier’s limited North-east exposure.
American Airlines said it had been able to resume operations at Washington Reagan National and Philadelphia.
Delta and American both said they expect to resume operations at New York’s LaGuardia and JFK airports and Boston late on Feb 24 morning.
Delta also expects to resume Newark flights on Feb 24. JetBlue was especially hard hit, cancelling about 80 per cent of flights due to the storm on Feb 23, according to data from FlightAware.
The airline said in total it has cancelled 1,600 flights through Feb 25.
US passenger railroad Amtrak cancelled dozens of trains between New York and Boston and on other routes in the North-east. Several states ordered motorists to remain off roads for non-essential travel for extended periods due to the significant snowfall.
American, Delta and United all cancelled about 20 per cent of flights on Feb 23. The blizzard dropped more than 2-1/2 feet of snow (76.2 cm) across parts of the US North-east. REUTERS
