The powerful storm pummeling the Northeast was bringing traffic to airports in the region to a crawl, especially around New York City and Boston.
More than 5,500 flights scheduled for Monday have been canceled in and out of U.S. airports, with nearly all arrivals and departures suspended out of major hubs in the Northeast, according to FlightAware. The cancellations affected about one in five U.S. flights, according to Cirium, an aviation data firm. On a typical day, about 1 percent of domestic flights are canceled.
About 90 percent of flights were canceled out of Kennedy Airport, Newark Liberty International Airport and Boston Logan International Airport, according to FlightAware. At LaGuardia Airport in New York, 98 percent were canceled. Nationwide, more than 3,400 flights had been canceled on Sunday. About half as many flights scheduled for Tuesday had been canceled by late Monday morning, but the number was rising.
Airlines had closely tracked the storm last week, but began canceling flights in large numbers in recent days as the severity of forecasts worsened rapidly. The nation’s largest airlines — American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Southwest Airlines and United Airlines — suspended operations altogether at some major airports.
American said on Monday that it expected to restart flights at Ronald Reagan National Airport near Washington in the morning and out of Philadelphia in the afternoon or evening. The airline said it would restart operations in Boston and New York by Tuesday afternoon.
Republic Airways, which operates regional flights for American, Delta and United, was most affected by the storm, with more than 870 flights canceled, accounting for nearly 80 percent of its schedule. JetBlue Airways, whose network is heavily concentrated in the Northeast, had canceled about 80 percent of its flights. American, Delta and United each canceled about a fifth of their scheduled flights.
This week’s storm drew comparisons to another last month that dropped snow and ice on many parts of the country ill-equipped for frigid conditions, wreaking travel havoc for days.
This week’s storm is more concentrated in the Northeast, which is used to dealing with freezing weather and snow, meaning that airports and airlines could recover more quickly. But there could be some fresh delays and cancellations later in the week when more, though not nearly as much, snow is expected in New York, Boston and elsewhere.
Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the three major New York City-area airports, issued alerts to passengers, warning them not to travel to the airport unless they had a scheduled flight.
“Due to severe weather, a planned full system suspension of AirTrain service will begin at 11 p.m.,” Kennedy Airport told passengers in a social media post late Sunday, adding that free shuttle buses would replace train service at all stations. NJ Transit, which provides service to Newark airport, also suspended rail, bus and light rail services.
Major airlines, including United, Delta, JetBlue, American and Southwest have issued travel waivers allowing passengers to rebook travel without fees. Passengers who no longer wish to fly are eligible for a refund, according to Department of Transportation rules.
Niraj Chokshi is a Times reporter who writes about aviation, rail and other transportation industries.
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