The extreme winter weather on the east coast is causing flight delays and cancelations, and affecting flights coming in and out of San Diego International Airport. NBC 7’s Jeanette Quezada spoke with travelers about how it’s impacting their travel plans.
Airlines canceled 1,800 flights nationwide and experienced about 4,000 delays on Tuesday, according to FlightAware, mostly due to weather conditions.
The flight information board at San Diego International Airport showed mostly travel delays, particularly for flights with Northeast destinations.
As arctic blasts make their way through the Northeast and Pacific Northwest, travelers in San Diego are feeling the impact.
“I just got the message it was delayed one hour, I actually don’t know the reason, but I imagine is because this arctic blast coming up that way,” Keith London said.
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San Diego International Airport reported 40 cancellations and 107 delays, the disruptions were mostly caused by inclement weather.
Southwest Airlines said they continue to notify travelers of adjustments on their published schedule, saying in part, “We are seeing challenges ranging from wintry precipitation and blizzards to frozen equipment and other airfield constraints beyond our control. The persistent sub-zero wind-chill requires rotating ground crews to limit their exposure.”
Travelers' perspective
Local
Tim Thoby and his family packed the essentials, including, “a lot of patience,” he said.
Their flight was scheduled to depart at 12:40 p.m., but was delayed by an hour.
They are staying optimistic because they know others are dealing with worse.
“It’s not the best in the world, but I’ve seen people delayed days, for multiple hours, so at this point I will take it as long as it gets here,” Thoby said.
Alex Kabban has an international flight.
“I’m going home to London,” Alex Kabban said.
His flight is expected to depart at 6 p.m., but he hopes it will not be impacted by weather.
“I heard it’s quite stormy in London, there’s bad weather, so potentially there could be some delay my flight, but so far so good,” Kabban said.
Meanwhile, he found something to occupy his time.
“I dropped off the car, and I said goodbye to the family, they were off to work, so I figured maybe I’d just do some e-mails and trying to catchup with a bit of work,” Kabban said.
More cancellations on the way
There are already 24 flight cancellations scheduled for Wednesday at San Diego international Airport and 18 for Thursday, according to FlightAware.
