Day two: Buffalo flight schedule takes hit from lake snows
Flight cancellations piled up for a second day in a row at Buffalo/Niagara International Airport as record-setting snow pummeled parts of western New York. And at least four big airlines waived change fees for several airports in the Great Lakes region.
More than 85 flights – or close to half of Wednesday's flight schedule – had been canceled at Buffalo as of 1:20 p.m. ET, according to flight-tracking service FlightAware.
That marks the second day in a row of significant flight disruptions at Buffalo's airport. On Tuesday, more than 70 flights were canceled, accounting for nearly 40% of the day's flight schedule. Close to 10% of the airport's flights were canceled Monday, the day that the lake-effect snow first began roaring off Lake Erie and into western New York.
Some parts of metro Buffalo have already received five feet of snow, with several more feet possibly still to come. But the snowfall has been wildly uneven across the region. The town of Lancaster, N.Y., for example, sits just about 7 miles from Buffalo/Niagara International and had 60 inches of snow as of 8 p.m. ET on Tuesday, according to WGRZ-TV of Buffalo. The total at the airport: Only about 4 inches.
"The runway has been open the whole time, but the airlines are canceling flights," C. Douglas Hartmayer, spokesman for the agency that runs Buffalo/Niagara International, says to The Buffalo News.
Though the airport itself had only modest snowfall totals, the staggering amounts elsewhere in the region had forced the closure of many key roads. That complicates the efforts to get to the airport not only for travelers, but also for key airport personnel.
Elsewhere in the U.S. on Wednesday, mostly minor flight problems were being reported as of 1:20 p.m. ET.
The worst of the problems elsewhere appeared to come in San Francisco, where nearly four-dozen flights -- about 3% of the airport's daily schedule -- were canceled as strong winds were reported in the area. The Federal Aviation Administration's flight-delay map reported delays of up to 90 minutes were affecting San Francisco flights, citing "wind" as the cause. About 15% of all flights at the airport had been delayed as of 1:20 p.m. ET, according to FlightAware.
