Airport chaos hits March 20

A multiday storm earlier in the week forced more than 12,500 U.S. flights to be delayed or canceled on March 16, creating aircraft and crew shortages that fed into residual disruptions at major hubs through March 20. (usnews.com) Widespread airspace closures across the Middle East after strikes and retaliatory attacks forced Gulf hubs including Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha to halt or severely curtail operations, removing a key pool of transfer seats and lengthening many Europe–Asia routings. (money.usnews.com) With Gulf corridors restricted, airlines and dispatchers have been rerouting long-haul flights through northern corridors over the Caucasus and Turkey, increasing block times and fuel burn on affected schedules. (nytimes.com) A 48‑hour pilots’ strike at Lufthansa on March 12–13 pulled dozens of aircraft and crews out of circulation in Europe, compounding the global equipment shortfall that carriers say has hampered recovery of normal rotations. (bloomberg.com) San Diego’s runway was briefly closed after an on‑ground aircraft incident; the ground stop was lifted and the runway reported reopened at about 9:23 p.m. local time as airport operations resumed. (youtube.com) Industry trackers show March has been unusually bad for delays—FlightQueue logged 14,827 FAA‑reported delays across U.S. airports in March so far, with weather cited as the largest single cause at about 41% of reported disruptions. (flightqueue.com) Airlines have been raising some fares and adding fuel surcharges on impacted routes after the surge in fuel costs and rerouting, while carriers simultaneously issued travel waivers and rebooking policies for storm‑ and war‑affected flights. (msn.com)