Mass flight cancellations at Miami, Fort Lauderdale airports due to severe weather
Severe weather in the East Coast sparked several flight cancellations and delays at South Florida airports Friday, no doubt frustrating travelers leaving town for the busy holiday weekend.
A torrent of heavy rain, thunderstorms and tornado watches pounded the Atlantic coast this week, with the threat of thunderstorm winds extending from the mid-Atlantic to Florida and tornado watches issued for Virginia, the Carolinas and Georgia, according to the Weather Channel.
Mixed with a deluge of frantic holiday travelers visiting far-flung cities for Passover and Easter, the siege of nasty weather truly turned out to be a perfect storm of misery. Meteorologists predict this particular bout of severe weather will subside later in the day Friday.
At Miami International Airport, airport officials reported 123 cancellations and 57 delays as of 6:20 p.m., said airport spokesman Greg Chin.
Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport reported 25 cancellations and 100 flight delays Friday evening, with some departure delays lasting “several hours long,” according to the airport’s Twitter page.
“Please check with your airline about the status of your flight before coming to the airport,” Chin said in a statement. “Changing your travel plans may be done more easily where you are versus at the airport.”
The Federal Aviation Administration highlighted the wait times at both airports as among the most serious in the country Friday, with departure delays of up to 1 hour and 15 minutes at MIA and up to an hour and a half at FLL.
Other major airports experiencing delays Friday included Orlando International, Ronald Reagan Washington National, Newark Liberty International, and both John F. Kennedy International and LaGuardia Airport in New York City.
This story was originally published April 19, 2019 at 6:59 PM.