Airports in New York City, Philadelphia and Baltimore were resuming very limited service Sunday, a day after a punishing blizzard dumped two feet or more of snow and brought transportation to a standstill along the East Coast.
Other airports along the track of Winter Storm Jonas were doing better, with near-normal service. The major airlines intended to resume service at all airports throughout the region today, though about 700 flights have been canceled.
Along with clearing snow and ice from their own facilities and equipment, airlines and train operators were dealing with how to get all their snowbound employees to work.
Amtrak was operating Sunday on all its routes, but with a reduced number of trains. Spokesman Marc Magliari said Sunday afternoon that the number of passengers was down from usual, but appeared to include many travelers who couldn’t get around on other transportation modes.
“We’re seeing a pretty solid increase in ridership as the day has gone on,” he said.
Amtrak had not yet determined whether it would be back to normal operations today, as it is still coordinating with commuter rail and bus lines to see how many Amtrak employees would be able to get to train stations and other work locations.
Nearly 12,000 flights were canceled from Friday through today as states from New England to North Carolina wrestled with the massive snow dump. All told, 3,458 flights scheduled for Sunday and 699 flights for today had been canceled, according to flight tracking service FlightAware. With 3,100 flights failing to take off Friday and 4,511 being grounded on Saturday, the total of flights grounded was 11,768 for the four-day period.
Around 1,000 flights were delayed Sunday, FlightAware said.
Passengers were being urged to check with their airline before heading to Eastern airports. Officials at Philadelphia International Airport, which got hit with an entire season’s worth of snowfall over two days, said they planned to “gradually” resume operations Sunday.
Delta expected to begin accepting its first arrivals Sunday afternoon at its New York hubs, John F. Kennedy International Airport and LaGuardia, both of which got 30 inches of snow. By mid-afternoon, Delta anticipated near-full operation at both airports.
