Northeast blizzard puts freeze on Phoenix flights

PHOENIX — In sunny Phoenix, Eric Leiser sits at Sky Harbor Airport and waits for a snowstorm to hit the East Coast.

That snowstorm, expected to be a major blizzard, began to fall Friday and shut down 28 flights at Phoenix Sky Harbor, including Leiser’s United flight to New York.

Across the country, 4,000 flights to the northeast have been cancelled.

“I lived through [Hurricane] Sandy, I’ve been through a lot of disasters in New York since I moved there
from California and I’m not looking forward to another ‘super’ whatever,” Leiser said.

Leiser said he’s hoping for next available flight out. Airlines are crossing their fingers that flights will resume Saturday. Barring that, he’d consider buying a bus or train ticket to get home.