Home Travel News

Thousands of flights cancelled as US snowstorm rages

A massive blizzard in the Northeast of the USA has affected the country's aviation industry, with some 7,800 flights cancelled over the last two days leaving thousands of holidaymakers stranded.

A massive blizzard in the Northeast of the USA has affected the country’s aviation industry, with some 7,800 flights cancelled over the last two days leaving thousands of holidaymakers stranded.

Winter Storm Stella has been described as the ‘worst storm of the season’, causing parts of Connecticut, Massachusetts and upstate New York to issue ‘blizzard warnings’ due to its ferocious wind and heavy snow.

According to The National Weather Service, some 13-inches of powder was dumped over some of the region, while New York City was spared with only around eight inches.

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said that although snowfall wasn’t as heavy as predicted, conditions were still “very dangerous”.

“The storm is not delivering as much snow as forecasted at all and that is very good for the people of New York City, but the conditions are still very dangerous out there.”

Bill de Blasio, New York Mayor 

Locals have been urged to stay indoors, schools have been cancelled and airlines were forced to ground thousands of services to and from the region yesterday and today.

Flight tracking website, FlightAware, reported that some 6,864 services were cancelled within, into and out of the United States yesterday and another 1,034 have been cancelled for today.

Southwest Airlines and American Airlines have taken the brunt of cancellations with around 2,099 services impacted between the two of them over the last two days. Five Qantas services were also affected yesterday including several codeshare flights to and from JFK Airport in New York.

New York’s LaGuardia will be the worst hit today with around 127 cancellations, followed by Boston Logan, which will have around 99 cancellations.

Heard or seen anything new? Share it with us below.