Hurricane Idalia: Flight cancellations already stretching into Thursday
This developing story has been updated with new information.
Hurricane Idalia made landfall near Florida's Big Bend on Wednesday, but the storm had already been creating headaches for air travelers for more than a day.
Airlines rolled out flexible rebooking policies earlier this week and canceled hundreds of flights across Florida and the Southeast as the storm neared the U.S. coastline.
At least five airports with commercial airline service had plans to curtail operations Wednesday, with further disruptions possible.
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More than 1,000 flights had been canceled across the U.S. as of 12:50 p.m. EDT, with the vast majority of those coming on flights to or from Florida, Georgia and South Carolina, according to flight-tracking service FlightAware.
Tampa International Airport (TPA), which halted all flights at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday, was the busiest airport to halt flights because of the storm, but it was not the only one. Tallahassee International Airport (TLH), St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport (PIE), Gainesville Regional Airport (GNV) and Sarasota Bradenton International Airport (SRQ) also announced plans to halt flights as Idalia came onshore.
Hundreds of Wednesday's cancellations could be tied to those airports, but other airports were seeing disruptions as Idalia's effects rippled across the region. At Florida's Jacksonville International Airport (JAX), about 110 flights — more than 50 arrivals and 50 departures — were canceled as of early Wednesday, even though the airport remained operational. That accounted for about 60% of the airport's entire daily schedule, by FlightAware's count. Orlando International Airport (MCO) also remained open to flights, but more than 90 flights had been canceled there.
Similarly, cancellations also were ticking up at Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport (SAV) in Georgia and Charleston International Airport (CHS) in South Carolina — two airports expected to be in Idalia's path through Friday. By Wednesday afternoon, FlightAware counted more than 70 cancellations at Savannah and 55 at Charleston.
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Beyond that, cancellations were piling up at other hubs, largely the results of disruptions at airports along Idalia's expected track. More than 115 flights had been canceled at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL) and more than 80 at Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT). Elsewhere, dozens of flights were taken off the books at airports stretching from Boston, New York and Philadelphia to Nashville, Dallas and Chicago.
Cancellations were already piling up for Thursday, too — a combination of airport closures and preemptive cancellations from airlines wanting to keep their crews and planes out of the storm's path.
Nearly 90 flights had already been grounded for Thursday, spread across airports like Tampa, Tallahassee and Jacksonville in Florida as well as Savannah and Charleston.
Those cancellation counts could likely grow if Idalia tracks across North Florida into Georgia and the Carolinas, as forecast.
With most carriers having added flexible rebooking policies, travelers with plans to travel to the region this week might want to consider changing their travel dates to avoid the storm.
This is a developing story and will be updated as the storm advances.
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