Blizzard causes US air traffic disruptions

Airline Industry Information, Jan 24, 2005

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A blizzard affected air and road travel and caused power cuts in the north-eastern USA on Sunday (23 January).

The effects on air travel were also felt in the United Kingdom as flights were cancelled from London's Heathrow airport to and from New York, Boston, Philadelphia and Washington, Reuters reported. It was estimated that airlines in the US cancelled hundreds of flights while Boston's Logan airport shut down because runways could not be kept clear of snow. Airports in Connecticut and Rhode Island were also closed.

There were reports of massive cancellations and flight delays at New York's John F. Kennedy, LaGuardia and Newark airports, and at JFK an aircraft slid off the runway, but no one was injured. A spokesman for Philadelphia's airport said the airport was closed for five hours on Saturday (22 January), leading to the cancellation of 960 flights.

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