{"id":165966,"date":"2026-02-23T19:03:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T19:03:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/165966\/"},"modified":"2026-02-23T19:03:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T19:03:08","slug":"thousands-stuck-at-south-florida-airports-as-blizzard-paralyzes-northeast-sun-sentinel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/165966\/","title":{"rendered":"Thousands stuck at South Florida airports as blizzard paralyzes Northeast \u2013 Sun Sentinel"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Thousands of air travelers scrambled to make alternate arrangements or simply hunkered down and waited at South Florida\u2019s three international airports Monday as a blizzard that dropped up to 2 feet of snow all but paralyzed most of the Northeast.<\/p>\n<p>By midday, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flightaware.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">tracking service Flightaware<\/a> recorded the following figures for cancellations, which far outnumbered delays of departing flights from South Florida:<\/p>\n<p>Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport: 198 canceled, 63 delayed.<br \/>\nPalm Beach International: 125 canceled, 13 delayed<br \/>\nMiami International: 191 canceled; 61 delayed.<\/p>\n<p>By Monday morning,\u00a0 New York\u2019s LaGuardia Airport saw 98% of its flight schedule wiped out, according to CNBC. The figure for Boston Logan International Airport was about 90%, and 80% for Newark Liberty International Airport and Philadelphia International Airport.<\/p>\n<p>Airlines had prepared for the storm\u2019s onslaught by canceling flights as early as Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>By Monday, domestic cancellations had exceeded 5,300 flights after carriers dropped 3,400 flights on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>Fee waivers<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" lazyautosizes lazyload\" alt=\"Long lines and delays at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport on Monday, Feb. 23, 2026. (Joe Cavaretta\/South Florida Sun Sentinel)\" width=\"5910\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/tfl-l-winter-weather-sfl-0223-02.jpg\" data-attachment-id=\"13186745\" \/>Long lines and delays started early Monday at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport after a blizzard began pummeling the Northeast. (Joe Cavaretta\/South Florida Sun Sentinel)<\/p>\n<p>Most carriers said they would waive change\/cancellation fees and fare differences for their customers.<\/p>\n<p>JetBlue Airways, one of the busiest carriers at Fort Lauderdale, had the most cancellations at the airport and said <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jetblue.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">on its website<\/a> that waivers would apply to customers traveling between Sunday through Thursday to and from 15 cities including Boston, Hartford, Islip, N.Y., Newark, the JFK International and LaGuardia airports in New York, Norfolk, Va., Providence, and Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCustomers may rebook their flights for travel through Wednesday, March 4, 2026, online in the manage trips section of jetblue.com prior to the departure time of their originally scheduled flight,\u201d the airline said on its website. \u201cCustomers with cancelled flights may also opt for a refund to the original form of payment. Original travel must have been booked before Friday, February 20, 2026.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Spirit Airlines, which is based in Dania Beach and placed second in cancellations at Fort Lauderdale, had similar modifications in place for travelers booked on flights between this past Sunday and this coming Wednesday, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.spirit.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">according to its website.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>For the blizzard, the affected cities include Atlantic City, Baltimore, Boston, Newark, New York\u2019s LaGuardia Airport, Norfolk, Philadelphia and Richmond.<\/p>\n<p>Trip modification charges and fare differences are waived through March 4. \u201cAfter this date, the modification charge is waived, but a fare difference may apply,\u201d the Spirit site says.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazyautosizes lazyload\" alt=\"Dozens of flights are canceled or delayed at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport due to a winter storm, Monday, Jan. 26, 2026. (Joe Cavaretta\/South Florida Sun Sentinel) \" width=\"6803\" height=\"639\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/tfl-l-fll-delays-winter-storms-0126-01.jpg\" data-attachment-id=\"13148179\" \/>Dozens of flights are canceled or delayed at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport due to a winter storm on Monday. (Joe Cavaretta\/South Florida Sun Sentinel)<\/p>\n<p>Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines, which was third in cancellations at Fort Lauderdale, posted blizzard-related advisories for more than two dozen cities, and a separate one for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sun-sentinel.com\/2026\/02\/23\/mexicos-security-secretary-says-25-troops-died-after-the-military-killed-el-mencho-cartel-boss\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">civil unrest in Mexico,<\/a> which was the scene of weekend violence involving a major drug cartel.<\/p>\n<p>Delta issued a waiver for customers traveling to Puerto Vallarta and Guadalajara on Sunday and Monday. The airline said people planning to fly to the affected region should monitor their flights for changes by using the airline\u2019s app or by visiting <a href=\"https:\/\/www.delta.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">delta.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Other carriers including Air Canada, Alaska Airlines, American Airlines and Southwest Airlines have either diverted or canceled trips into the region.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sun-sentinel.com\/2026\/02\/22\/south-florida-temperatures-to-plunge-sunday-night-how-long-will-the-chill-last\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">South Florida temperatures to plunge. How long will the chill last?<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The blizzard, meanwhile, was expected to deliver its pain through at least Monday night, with up to 6,000 flights canceled, according to AccuWeather.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSnow totaling 18-24 inches is forecast to bury parts of New Jersey, Long Island and coastal New England through Monday night,\u201d: the service advised. \u201cHeavy snow combined with wind gusts above 50 mph will lead to near-zero visibility and coastal erosion issues from Delmarva to Cape Cod.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thousands of air travelers scrambled to make alternate arrangements or simply hunkered down and waited at South Florida\u2019s&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":165967,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[506,8904,28,30,29,249,686,114,266,123,373,5741,115,557,109,1798,4556],"class_list":{"0":"post-165966","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida","8":"tag-broward-county","9":"tag-dania-beach","10":"tag-florida","11":"tag-florida-headlines","12":"tag-florida-news","13":"tag-fort-lauderdale","14":"tag-hollywood","15":"tag-latest-headlines","16":"tag-local-news","17":"tag-miami","18":"tag-miami-dade-county","19":"tag-national-news","20":"tag-news","21":"tag-palm-beach-county","22":"tag-social","23":"tag-transportation","24":"tag-west-palm-beach"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165966","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165966"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165966\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/165967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}