Flights at several major airports along the East Coast were delayed after ground stops at all three of the New York metro area airports Monday afternoon sparked a travel disaster that stranded thousands from New York to Washington, DC.
The Federal Aviation Administration first announced that flights at JFK International Airport would be grounded due to a severe thunderstorm on the horizon.
Newark Liberty Airport was also added to the mix, with outgoing flights shut down until 6:30 p.m., according to the FAA.
LaGuardia Airport was eventually thrown in too and grounded all planes through 8 p.m., according to the FAA’s airport status.
The thunderstorm stops had a domino effect, beginning with delays at Philadelphia International Airport to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport before spreading to others, trailing up and down the East Coast.
Wait times have kept ticking up even though the ground stops were only supposed to last through the early evening as airlines seek to make up for lost time.
Departure delays at JFK were estimated to be around 2 hours and 35 minutes, according to the FAA.
The single thunderstorm in the Empire State wound up sparking a staggering 1,500 flight delays.
On top of that, more than 6,000 flights in and out of the country were also delayed, and nearly 600 others were cancelled, according to FlightAware.
Flights in Washington were grounded until 5 p.m. Flights in Philadelphia, meanwhile, were stuck on the tarmac until 6:30 p.m., but their delays at least dropped down to just 1 hour and 15 minutes, according to the FAA.
Newark — which has been plagued by staffing shortages and other travel snafus — fared the worst with delays at a whopping 4 hours and 31 minutes, according to the airport status tracker.
The weather alert in New York is in place until 11:59 p.m.
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