On Sunday, travelers at New York City’s airports faced a gloomy situation as a thunderstorm caused over 1,000 flight delays and cancellations. According to FlightAware data, Newark, LaGuardia, and JFK airports experienced a combined total of over 600 flight cancellations and more than 500 delays by 1:30 p.m. Notably, each of the city’s three major airports recorded more flight disruptions than any other location worldwide, as indicated by the data.
The ongoing woes added another frustrating chapter to what has been a nightmarish summer for air passengers in New York. The city’s airports have been grappling with understaffing issues and frequent adverse weather conditions that have led to flight cancellations and delays.
“I found myself overcome with emotion, and tears welled up,” recounted Alex Vikartofsky, who found herself stranded at Newark Airport for a staggering 18 hours on Sunday. She had been on a layover between St. Thomas in the Caribbean and Chicago, originally slated to be just a brief stop of a couple of hours.
“Feeling frustrated and stranded, I don’t know New York, so I had a sense of being lost,” shared Vikartofsky. She painted a vivid picture of the airport’s terminals filled with hundreds of distressed travelers, many of whom were in tears.
On Sunday afternoon, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) disclosed that flights at JFK were experiencing an average delay of over four hours. Earlier in the day, the FAA also issued a grounding of planes at LaGuardia for nearly three hours.
David Radell, a meteorologist from the National Weather Service, attributed this weekend’s storms to the significant moisture in the air resulting from last week’s heat wave.
Radell forecasted that thunderstorms would persist through Sunday evening, potentially bringing up to one inch of rain to the New York City metropolitan area.
During June, both Newark Liberty and LaGuardia airports encountered numerous consecutive days of flight delays. Airlines such as United attributed these delays to severe weather, while passengers were informed that staffing shortages also played a role.
Image Credits- John F.Kennedy International Airport