FAA reports 321 cancellations, 2,189 delays

The Federal Aviation Administration’s air traffic dashboards and FlightAware data showed broad disruption across the U.S. system on Wednesday, Sept. 2, as thunderstorms hit major Northeast airports and delays spread through large hubs. A disruption roundup cited 321 cancellations and 2,189 delays nationwide, with John F. Kennedy, Newark Liberty, Boston Logan and Chicago O’Hare among the most affected airports. (fly.faa.gov) The FAA’s National Airspace System status page showed active traffic management programs at several airports by late morning Pacific time, including ground stops at Newark, LaGuardia, Baltimore-Washington, Washington Reagan and Teterboro, all attributed to thunderstorms. (jetstream.united.com) JFK was under a ground delay program with average delays of 106 minutes, according to the FAA dashboard. ### Why were flights backing up across so many airports? Thunderstorms were the main driver in the FAA advisories for New York-area airports on Sept. 2. The FAA’s LaGuardia status page said traffic arriving at the airport was subject to a traffic management program because of thunderstorms, with average arrival delays of 1 hour and 25 minutes. (flightaware.com) Newark was also placed under an FAA ground stop on Wednesday, and Teterboro had both a ground stop and increasing arrival delays tied to thunderstorm-related traffic management initiatives. The FAA dashboard listed those actions as active airport events. (nasstatus.faa.gov) ### What happened at LaGuardia specifically? LaGuardia was one of the clearest examples of how weather restrictions were rippling through the network. The FAA’s National Airspace System page showed a ground stop at LGA from 10:15 a.m. to 11:45 a.m. PDT — 1:15 p.m. to 2:45 p.m. EDT — due to thunderstorms. (fly.faa.gov) The FAA’s airport-specific status page for LaGuardia also showed a thunderstorm-related ground delay program and departure delays, with the listed end time moving into the afternoon. The agency said the airport status page reflects general airport conditions and told passengers to check with their airline to determine whether a specific flight was affected. (nasstatus.faa.gov) ### How bad was the disruption at other hubs? JFK was under a ground delay program with average delays of 106 minutes as of the FAA dashboard update cited Wednesday. Chicago O’Hare’s FAA status page showed gate-hold and taxi delays of 15 minutes or more, even when destination-specific delays were not being reported at that snapshot. (nasstatus.faa.gov) Boston and Newark were among the airports cited in disruption roundups as seeing heavy delay counts, while O’Hare was also dealing with thunderstorm-related restrictions in separate FAA and airport-status postings. The effect of those programs is often cumulative because aircraft and crews rotate through multiple airports during the day. (fly.faa.gov) That operational effect is an inference based on how airline networks function, not a new FAA statement. ### What are airlines telling passengers to do? United Airlines posted a New York-area thunderstorm waiver covering Newark, JFK, LaGuardia and Philadelphia. (nasstatus.faa.gov) The waiver page listed impacted travel dates through Sept. 5. United’s public travel alerts page says travelers affected by alerts can review flight options and make changes under the carrier’s waiver policies. The airline also tells customers to check the status of their specific flight before going to the airport. (nasstatus.faa.gov) ### Where should travelers check next? The FAA said on its daily air traffic report page that up-to-the-minute operating information is available through its airport-status tools and National Airspace System dashboard. FlightAware’s cancellation and airport-delay pages were also updating throughout Wednesday. (jetstream.united.com) United’s waiver for New York-area thunderstorms runs through Sept. 5, according to the airline’s operational notice, and the FAA’s airport-status pages continued to update on Sept. 2 as weather moved through the Northeast. (jetstream.united.com) (faa.gov) (united.com)