9,726 Flights Canceled

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Damage from blizzard lingers in the Northeast

Posted: December 29th, 2010 -- 11:14 AM ET

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Randi Kaye reports


New York (CNN) -- A historic blizzard that blanketed the Northeast with several feet of snow was still causing heartburn for pilots, air traffic controllers and stranded passengers Wednesday.

Some 10,000 flights have been canceled because of the weather since Saturday, according to the airlines.

Representatives from AirTran, American, Continental, Delta Air Lines, JetBlue, United, U.S. Airways, Spirit and Southwest reported a total of at least 9,726 trips were called off due to weather since Saturday.

Of those, at least 1,335 flights were canceled on Tuesday as major airports across the region slowly got back to normal.

Nowhere is the traveling heartburn more pronounced than at John F. Kennedy airport in New York where passengers on international flights have had to wait up to 11 hours on the tarmac before being allowed to deplane.

At least a handful of flights sat in the cold of a New York night early Wednesday, waiting for a gate and permission to unload. Passengers on at least three flights -- Aero Mexico, Air France and Lufthansa -- waited more than six hours to get off their planes.

The wait was even longer for a Korean Air flight from Seoul, which arrived at about 7:40 p.m. Tuesday, but did not arrive at the gate until about 5 a.m. Wednesday, more than nine hours later.

However, other international flights arrived without delay.

Passengers told CNN that a Transaero flight from Moscow to New York had no delay before reaching the gate, and two Avianca flights from Cali and Bogota reported no issues.

"We did contact the airlines and have been telling them they must not leave their point of origin without being assured of a gate," Port Authority spokesman Steve Coleman said. "Apparently, it didn't help."

It is up to the airlines and also each terminal manager to order planes to leave the gate once passengers have deplaned and the aircraft serviced to make room for other planes, he said.

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Added On December 28, 2010
A storm of a different kind has kicked up in the aftermath of the blizzard...a blacklash at the response.

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"We need to keep working with the airlines and individual terminal managers at JFK to improve the situiation so it doesn't keep happening," he said, referring to the aircrafts stranded on the tarmac.

No explanation was immediately available from airport officials or the airlines.

The worst case involved a Cathay Pacific Airways flight from Vancouver, British Columbia.

The plane arrived in New York at 2:12 a.m. ET on Tuesday; no one got off the plane until shortly after 1 p.m. ET.

"It wasn't fun with three children sitting there," said passenger Vincent Butcher. "No one has admitted to making any mistakes."

At some point, Butcher said, there was even talk of a ladder being brought out to the runway, but that did not happen. The airline told him it may be at least 48 hours before the family gets its luggage, he said.

Passenger Max Ascui told CNN's "AC360" that the crew did a good job but couldn't provide answers on what would happen.

Cathay apologized on Wednesday.

"We are particularly sorry for the great inconvenience that more than 1,100 passengers have suffered throughout their long wait inside our aircraft on the tarmac," a statement from the airline said.

Five Cathay flights sat on the JFK tarmac from four to 11 hours.

"Our intentions to get our passengers to their destinations as quickly as possible were good, but we could not overcome the challenging conditions at JFK due to the snowstorm and as a result did not live up to our service standards, for which we sincerely apologize," the airline said.

Four international flights were stranded at JFK on Tuesday without gates available to unload passengers, Port Authority spokesman Steve Coleman said Tuesday.

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Because the JFK flights were international, they had to be unloaded in specific customs areas to undergo screening, he said.

"There is just no place that you can dump 1,000 people in a secured area for a period of time," Coleman said.

He said the planes were stranded because the airlines brought them in without checking with terminal operations to see if there was a place to put them.

The damage caused by the blizzard likely will continue to linger.

"With all the cancellations and delays, it'll be two to three days before the airlines are at a regular schedule," said Thomas Bosco, general manager of New York's LaGuardia Airport.

Early Tuesday evening, LaGuardia was still operating well below its normal 70 flights per hour, he said.

Delta Air Lines canceled 300 flights on Tuesday and was still facing reduced operations at JFK and Newark because of runway issues, according to spokesman Trebor Banstetter.

Banstetter said the airline is hoping to return to a full schedule at JFK sometime Wednesday morning, and at Newark by midday.

The Federal Transportation Security Administration has been coordinating with airports and airlines to bolster staffing as necessary as flights resume, according to spokeswoman Sterling Payne.

Other travel -- by rail and road -- was snarled as well. Hundreds of people were left stranded at New York's Pennsylvania railroad station after Long Island Railroad canceled trains. Amtrak said it would resume normal service Wednesday between Boston and Washington, but passengers could see some delays.

CNN's Elise Zeiger, Ric Ward, Susan Candiotti, Aaron Cooper, Allan Chernoff and David Ariosto contributed to this report.