Thousands of flights are being cancelled nationwide due to the major snow storm hitting the east coast. Akron/Canton Airport CEO Rick McQueen says United Airlines flights to Newark are canceled, and all American Airlines flights to Charlotte, Washington D.C. and New York City are also halted. He says over the last several years the airlines have been more proactive in cancelling flights in advance of big storms.
“Their big fear is that they don’t want to get aircraft on the ground and have them stuck in an airport because of snow and ice. As you can imagine those airplanes don’t just go back and forth to that destination, so it could have impacts further down the line to service to other cities that aren’t impacted by the weather like we aren’t here in Northeast Ohio in this case.”
McQueen says flights traveling west and deeper south are still leaving Akron/Canton Airport. But he cautions that all passengers should check with their airlines before coming to the airport because things can change quickly with a major storm like this.
Cleveland Hopkins Airport Interim Director Fred Szabo says as of this afternoon, about 45 of the average daily 200 departures have been cancelled. And because the storm missed Cleveland, he says many airlines have parked planes from cancelled flights at Hopkins, which is good for local passengers. That’s because when the storm ends, many of those planes will mean additional flights out of Cleveland to the east coast.