Nightmare delays continue at NYC airports after freak snowstorm
JAMAICA, Queens (WABC) -- Delays continued Friday at New York City's airports after Thursday's freak snowstorm.
Passengers on a Norwegian Airlines flight from JFK to London that was supposed to leave at 7:40 p.m. Thursday will have to wait until 12:45 a.m. Saturday for their flight.
"I'm with a colleague. We're experienced travelers, but in the 20 years that we've been traveling we've never experienced anything like this," said passenger Danny Rowark.
Rowark said passengers didn't even get a gate assignment until 11 p.m. Thursday night. He said passengers were told if the flight didn't take off by 1:10 a.m., the flight would not be able to depart because the crew was not legally allowed to exceed their hours.
He said by 4 a.m., Norwegian Airlines had finally provided passengers with food, drinks and cots to sleep on. Early Friday morning, the airline informed passengers they could stay at local hotels and return much later in the night for the flight to London.
Norwegian Airlines released a statement Friday night saying in part,
"(The flight) was delayed and ultimately canceled for a number of reasons out of Norwegian's control. Last night's weather situation had a major impact on JFK's operation, creating delays for ours and many other airlines' flights. During this time, customers were regularly updated."
Eyewitness News found that many regularly scheduled flights that were supposed to depart Friday morning from JFK were delayed anywhere from one to eight hours. For example, a Delta flight that was supposed to depart at 9:45 a.m. was delayed until 2 p.m.
Another Delta flight which was supposed to leave at 11:41 a.m. to Minneapolis was delayed until 7:30 p.m. And yet, even worse, a Delta flight to Las Vegas which was set to depart at 7:30 p.m. Thursday was delayed until 1:15 p.m. Friday.
In a statement to Eyewitness News, a spokesperson for Delta said Friday's delays are residual delays from the snowstorm.
Gabrielle Vander of Yonkers was supposed to fly to Ghana Thursday night. Her flight was delayed several times and was then cancelled. She returned to JFK this afternoon for a 2:30 p.m. rescheduled flight only to find out it had been delayed until 5:15 p.m.
"Hopefully it doesn't get delayed again, because I don't think I can deal with it," she said.
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