Airport Delays Are Expected to Persist for Several Days

Buried beneath white powder for more than 24 hours, New York area airports turned on Tuesday to the growing backlog of canceled flights, an accumulation that could take far longer to address than the snow itself.
Even as flights resumed, ripple effects from over 4,000 canceled flights threatened to leave travelers stranded through the New Year.

The departure boards were full of woe for holiday travelers as airlines struggled with de-icing planes, clearing gate areas of snow and staffing ticket counters. Many domestic flights were canceled or delayed on Tuesday and international service was limited.

“We have arrivals, we have departures, but we’re still looking at a lot of cancellations,” said Steve Coleman, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. “It could take days to clear because you had two days of no flights.” A limited number of planes took off from La Guardia Airport and John F. Kennedy International Airport on Monday evening, though flights into and out of Newark Liberty International Airport did not resume until Tuesday morning.

The rare extended shutdown of all three area airports stranded many passengers, although because airports were closed and flights canceled rather than delayed, many avoided being stuck in terminals. Still, upwards of 1,400 people spent the night, the majority in J.F.K. airport, according to the Port Authority.

“Flights are going out at a much slower pace than normal and there are crew availability issues as well,” said Allison Steinberg, a spokeswoman for JetBlue Airways. “Our goal is to resume as normal as possible by tomorrow. We’re doing all that we can.”

The trouble for airlines lies in finding new flights for delayed passengers. Airlines were running at record levels of capacity even before Sunday’s storm blanketed the city with 20 inches of snow during one of the busiest travel periods of the year. Through the first nine months of the year, domestic flights were fuller than at any similar period since the Department of Transportation began tracking.

With airlines flying fights so full, finding available space on new flights into and out of New York’s airports for nearly two day’s worth of passengers could take the better part of the next week.

Ground transportation to and from all three airports was improving as most major roads were cleared overnight, though bus service remained limited and many streets, especially outside Manhattan, were still impassible. Airport employees reported much slower commutes.

The AirTrain shuttle from Kennedy to the subway was out of service, though the Port Authority said it was working to replace the route with bus service by Tuesday afternoon.

New Jersey Transit officials said they would operate rail service on a holiday schedule on Tuesday. Amtrak resumed limited service along the northeast corridor from Boston to Washington, which includes a stop at Newark International. Long Island Rail Road, suspended for most of Monday, returned on Tuesday with limited service from Penn Station to Babylon, Huntington, Port Washington and Ronkonkoma. Metro-North service operated on a weekend schedule or an otherwise limited basis.