Sky Harbor flights canceled, delayed after wintry storm hits Midwest
Nov 26, 2018, 10:20 AM | Updated: 1:24 pm
PHOENIX — About a dozen flights that moved through Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport were canceled on Monday shortly after a wintry storm brought blizzard-like conditions to parts of the Midwest.
Gregory Roybal, a spokesman with the City of Phoenix’s aviation department, said in an email that there were several delays and about 12 cancellations seemingly due to the storms.
A majority of those flights involved Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport and Eastern seaboard cities that were affected by weather, he added.
The National Weather Service said 7.5 inches of snow fell at O’Hare and 4.9 inches fell at Midway International Airport in Chicago.
The Federal Aviation Administration’s website said flights arriving to O’Hare were delayed by an average of three hours and six minutes.
Other airports that showed flight delays due to weather included Newark in New Jersey, LaGuardia in New York and Boston Logan International.
But there was some good news: Roybal said many of the flight delays to or from Sky Harbor on Monday were less than 30 minutes.
Roybal said anyone who plans on flying to or from the Midwest should reach out to their airline to confirm their flight status before coming to the airport.
The storm also dumped wet snow on parts of Michigan’s Lower Peninsula, creating treacherous driving conditions. Police responded to dozens of crashes Monday morning in the Lansing area.
Authorities warned that roads were icy and covered with snow and encouraged people to stay off the roads unless travel was essential.
Further south, Gov. Jeff Colyer declared a state of emergency in Kansas on Sunday after 2 to 14 inches (5 to 36 centimeters) of snow fell in parts of the state. The state Department of Transportation reported several road closures Monday, mostly in the extreme northeast, but said a stretch of Interstate 70 that had been closed on Sunday was reopened.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
