There are major delays at Miami and Fort Lauderdale airports. Here is why.
To sit inside Miami International Airport or Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport in South Florida — where it’s 80 degrees and clear skies on Friday — you might wonder why you’ve been waiting for an hour or two and can’t depart for places like New Jersey, New York or Philadelphia.
Blame it on the rain.
Heavy, flooding rain is currently affecting Newark International Airport in New Jersey, John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York and Philadelphia International Airport.
You’ll still get to your families and destinations by New Year’s, of course. Just be prepared for delays on some flights that approached two hours between Fort Lauderdale and Newark at noon Friday. Departure delays to JFK are topping 90 minutes and just over an hour to Philly, according to the Federal Aviation Agency.
The destination delay times are the same at MIA, the FAA reports.
In addition, heavy travel volume to Aspen-Pitkin Co/Sardy Field Airport in Aspen, Colorado, is forcing delays to just under an hour.
“So far, we have three arrivals and four departure delayed, as well as four arrivals and one departure canceled because of the weather,” said Greg Chin, spokesman for Miami International Airport at the Miami-Dade Aviation Department. The cities affected so far have been Charlotte, Houston, Dallas, Detroit and NYC-LaGuardia, he said
As of noon Friday, about 51 flights have been delayed and two canceled at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood, according to CBS 12 News.
This story was originally published December 28, 2018 at 1:07 PM.
