Snowstorm does not deter smooth US holiday travel
Most Christmas Eve travelers across the US got a holiday present: few airport delays and mostly clear highways, despite a deadly weekend snowstorm in the Plains and the Midwest.
Even the usually congested airports in the New York area — Kennedy, LaGuardia and Newark-Liberty — all reported departure delays of less than 15 minutes by Monday afternoon, with outbound flights taking off on time.
“The weather is pretty clear and there are no significant issues,” said Marc LaVorgna, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the three airports.
Economics did strand some travelers.
MAXjet Airways abruptly ceased operations between New York, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and London as the all-business class airline said it would file for bankruptcy protection. The five-plane airline reserved hotel rooms for stranded passengers and worked to find other flights for them.
“Elsewhere, no early major delays were reported at the Los Angeles airport or Chicago’s O’Hare,” reported the AP.
Lines at security also were relatively short, said Los Angeles International spokesman Albert Rodriguez. “People have gotten good about knowing what to pack and what not to pack, and just packing smart,” he said.
There were backups at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport, but they were caused by people driving around the terminals waiting to pick up arriving travelers. Cars were backed up as much as a half-mile, said spokeswoman Deborah Ostreicher.
A snowstorm across the Plains and Midwest blacked out thousands of homes and businesses and snarled air travel over the weekend. The storm was blamed for at least 19 deaths.
The storm was gone Monday and conditions quickly improved, but authorities urged Christmas Eve motorists to be cautious in northern areas.
AAA estimated 65.2 million Americans would travel 50 miles or more from home during the Christmas and New Year’s period, a slight increase over last year’s 64.7 million, despite high gasoline prices and air fares.
A blustery snowstorm was blamed for at least 22 traffic deaths in the upper Midwest but sunny conditions took over today.
The freezing rain, ice, gusty wind and heavy snow over the weekend knocked out power to than 421,000 homes and businesses in Michigan and Illinois, as well as thousands in Wisconsin. Only 6,000 customers were still without power in Michigan Monday evening, while scattered outages remained in Illinois, utility representatives said.
Report by David Wilkening
David
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