A winter storm that dropped manageable snow across much of upstate New York still caused a day of frustration for air travelers Monday, as flight delays and cancellations piled up at upstate New York airports.
While many upstate communities were spared the heaviest snow, the storm hit harder in downstate regions and along the East Coast, snarling operations at major hub airports and triggering a ripple effect through schedules.
“A widespread weather event like the storm going on right now, it has spillover impacts across the entire network, and we are seeing a significant number of cancellations and delays with flights coming in and out of Albany,” said Matt Hunter, director of communications for Albany International Airport.
For Brittany Ughetti and her husband, a morning flight to Detroit, and then home to Seattle, turned into an overnight ordeal.
“It’s about two-and-a-half hours delayed,” Ughetti said. “And so that is going to delay us in Detroit. And so, we’ll miss our flight in Detroit and ultimately will get home all the way to Seattle tomorrow.”
Ughetti said the couple tried to outsmart the weather by driving closer to the airport the night before the storm.
“We actually brought ourselves closer to the airport last night, just so we could not have any road conditions affecting our travel,” she said. “But we were definitely hoping our flight wouldn’t be delayed.”
Airport officials said many departures from Albany took off with minimal issues, but flights connecting through areas hardest hit by snow and wind, including New York City and other major East Coast hubs, faced the most significant problems.
“Most of the delayed flights and canceled flights are to and from cities that are experiencing very severe weather, much worse weather than we are impacting here,” Hunter said.
Mother and daughter Jennifer and Madelyn Grierson were trying to get to Las Vegas when their original evening departure was delayed, jeopardizing their connection in Detroit. They rebooked on an earlier flight, only to see that one pushed back as well.
“We were supposed to fly out this evening, and then it got delayed, and we weren’t going to make our connecting flight in Detroit,” Madelyn said. “So we booked on an earlier flight, which was also delayed. So now we are waiting to get there.”
“We’re just waiting, hoping that we’re going to get on a flight today,” Jennifer added.
With more winter weather possible later this week, airport officials are urging passengers to monitor their flight status closely, stay in touch with their airlines about rebooking options and allow extra time to reach the airport when snow is in the forecast.