New York snow cancels hundreds of flights

Thousands struggle to revise travel plans

- EMMETT LINDNER

Kennedy International Airport on Saturday morning. The airport, along with LaGuardia and Newark International, dealt with hundreds of flight cancellations and delays from Friday into Saturday.

(NYT)

Forecasters had predicted that as much as 9 inches of snow would fall in the New York area on Friday night and into the morning. The major airlines, fearing the worst, began to cancel hundreds of flights at the region’s big airports.

That decision meant that,even as the worst of the storm missed New York, thousands of holiday travellers were still left struggling to rebook seats and change their travel plans.

The three main airports serving the region — Kennedy International, LaGuardia and Newark Liberty International in New Jersey — had more than 400 inbound and outbound cancelled flights on Saturday, according to FlightAware, a tracking service. Hundreds more flights were delayed. On Friday, nearly 900 flights were cancelled at the three airports.

Spokespersons for the airlines said they had preemptively cancelled flights to avoid a cascading effect from real-time adjustments. Even small disruptions can be consequential for airline’s schedules, employees and customers.