Planned air travel throughout the United States, as well as bus and Amtrak passenger train service, are being disrupted by snow, rain, ice, wind, and bitterly cold temperatures. According to the flight tracking website, airlines had proactively cancelled about 1,000 flights for Friday and just over 2,270 flights within the US as of 6 p.m. ET on Thursday.
For Saturday, 85 flights had already been cancelled. On Thursday, there were even more delays: more than 7,400 as of 6 p.m., according to a news outlet.
The effects are most severe in Chicago and Denver, where hundreds of flights — or about a quarter of arrivals and departures — were cancelled on Thursday, according to the flight tracking website data.
According to a Federal Aviation Administration notice, snow and ice on Thursday at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport resulted in delays of 159 minutes, or about three hours.
Around 5 p.m. local time, the O’Hare airport’s temperature dipped to 9 degrees Fahrenheit (-13 Celsius). Snow and freezing fog were reported by the National Weather Service.
According to the news agency, the FAA stated that de-icing fluid must be sprayed onto departing planes at the airports of Dallas Love, Dallas-Fort Worth, Denver, and Minneapolis in order to ensure their safety.
While this is going on, some airlines have offered weather waivers that permit travellers to reschedule their travel plans without being penalised for a brief period of time.
The Transportation Security Administration is advising travellers to get to the airport earlier than usual for those whose planes are still scheduled to leave, according to the news outlet.
The bomb cyclone has an impact on more than just aircraft. On Thursday, Greyhound sent out a service advisory informing customers that excursions across the Midwest over the next two days may be postponed or cancelled entirely.
According to the media outlet, Greyhound, the biggest intercity bus service company, identified more than a dozen cities from West Virginia to Minnesota as being among those affected.
Additionally, Amtrak was compelled to postpone or discontinue passenger service on a few lines in the Midwest and Northeast.
According to the media outlet, Amtrak stated in its notification that “customers with reservations on trains that are being adjusted would normally be accommodated on trains with similar departure hours or another day.”
In addition, it stated that “Amtrak would eliminate additional fees for passengers wanting to change their ticket during the modified schedule by calling our reservation centre at 1-800-USA-RAIL.”
