Denver Blizzard cautioning: Airlines cancel 1,200 flights, waive costs
Denver Autoplay Show Thumbnails Show Captions Last SlideNext Slide LATEST UPDATE (Thursday, March 14): Air tourists dealt with another day of weather-related flight disruptions on Thursday thanks to a effective “bomb cyclone” moving through the Rockies, Excellent Plains and upper Midwest. Full story: Blizzard! Airlines have canceled 3,300 flights because Wednesday PREVIOUS VERSION: Airlines have canceled almost 2,000 flights Wednesday as a late-season winter storm is set to bring blizzard conditions to parts of the Rockies and upper Midwest. In the storm’s crosshairs is Denver, which is a major hub or base for 3 big carriers: Southwest, United and Frontier. Nationwide, about 1,940 flights had been canceled and another 2,700 delayed as of 4:40 pa.m. ET, according to flight-tracking service FlightAware.com. Blizzard conditions and up to a foot of snow were possible by Thursday for Denver and other parts of Colorado. All huge airline companies were waiving change fees, both for Denver and for numerous other cities in the path of the storm – dubbed “Ulmer” by The Weather condition Channel. USA TODAY WEATHER: Blizzard, wind, floods: Wild storm with winds like a Classification 1 typhoon battering central USA A t thebusy Denver International Airport, more than 1,360 integrated arrivals and departures had actually been canceled as of 4:40 p.m. ET. That represented almost 80 percent o the day’s flights there, FlightAware determined. The airport tweeted around 3:30 p.m. ET (1:30 p.m. regional time) on Wednesday afternoon that all runways had actually been closed because of heavy snowfall. As of 1:30 p.m., all runways are closed, but the terminal & concourses are open. Airlines have actually cancelled flights for early afternoon/evening. Conditions on Peña Blvd. are bad; exposure is extremely low, conditions are icy. Think about the @RideRTD A L ine when traveling to DEN. pic.twitter.com/AvGxVcZgeP— Denver Int’l Airport (@DENAirport) March 13, 2019 United operates one of its busiest hubs in Denver, which likewise is the busiest hub for Denver-based Frontier. For Southwest, Denver is the fourth-busiest airport in its entire network. Weather condition disruptions were likely to spread Wednesday from Colorado and the Rockies east into Minnesota, Nebraska and the Dakotas. Some airline companies’ weather waivers included airports in Illinois and Wisconsin, where rainy and stormy weather was forecast for airports in Chicago and Milwaukee. TODAY IN THE SKY: Airlines waive charges as blizzard threatens Denver, Fantastic Plains Aside from Denver, however, most of Wednesday’s disruptions from the storm were likely to affect primarily smaller airports. In Colorado Springs, Colorado, almost 40 percent of the day’s flights had been canceled, according to FlightAware. Other airports included in numerous airline company weather condition waivers consisted of places like Bismarck, North Dakota; Duluth, Minnesota; Hayden/Steamboat Springs, Colorado; Rapid City, South Dakota; and Scottsbluff, Nebraska. Flyers need to also keep their eyes on other potential difficulty areas Wednesday. The very same system that’s bringing wintry weather condition to the Rockies and upper Midwest also could create long lines of thunderstorms throughout Texas, producing the possibility of sporadic storm hold-ups at airports in Dallas and Houston. IN PICTURES: 33 cool aviation images Autoplay Show Thumbnails Program Captions Last SlideNext Slide The USA TODAY W eather map reveals a major storm moving across the central U.S. on Wednesday, March 13, 2019. (Photo: USA TODAY W eather) Read or Share this story: https://www. usatoday.com/story/travel/flights/todayinthesky/2019/03/13/blizzard-warning-airlines-cancel-1-200-flights-waive-fees/3148920002/
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