WA – The most wonderful time of the year quickly changed with fights delayed and canceled across the United States this Christmas season.
People flying, Airline staff and Airports especially in the Pacific Northwest, have been experiencing large amounts of delays and cancelations in flights, due to the snow blasts and freezing temperatures.
A winter storm has caused over 600 flights to be delayed and close to 300 being canceled at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.
“All the hotels around the airport are fully booked” said Kate Hudson, communications manager for Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. “So folks have literally been stranded at the airport over night and our team of onsite customer care folks, that we call pathfinders have been handing out blankets to folks. Two nights ago they handed out over 600 blankets to people over nighting it at the airport, so it’s a significant impact and it’s been a tough couple of days for travelers.”
Many families traveling for the holidays have been stuck for the last couple of days due to the winter weather.
“We definitely have a high volume of folks moving through the airport right now, the average that we were expecting was 124,000 a day” said Hudson.
Every airline is responsible for de-icing their own aircraft and its landing area, so from an airport perspective, the time it takes to de-ice the runway is also part of the delays.
Tri-cities Airport they said that because Sea-Tac has had issues, it has caused a domino effect.
“So right now, kind of the issue is because it hit a major hub” said Don Faley, deputy director at Tri-Cities Airport. “They got aircraft that canceled that aren’t where they are supposed to be, flight crews are not where they are supposed to be so it’s taking some time to get everything back into the system.”
Airlines are suggesting that if people are planning on traveling, call the airline they are traveling on beforehand to check on their flight and check their website as well. They are also asking people to not come to the airport until they have a confirmed a flight.
