The rains that have occurred in the United States in recent days and the lack of personnel in the airlines, have caused more than a thousand flights to be canceled and hundreds more to be rescheduled, a situation that has continued since last weekend, while passengers have had to sleep in the airports and with luck in some hotel until the notice of the next flight.
In the last 32 hours, the three main airports in the New York metropolitan area have canceled or rescheduled more than 500 flights, 15% of them at Newark Liberty in Manhattan.
For its part, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) says that bad weather may be a factor in the chaos recorded in recent hours, but did not rule out that problems with a lack of aircrew personnel were among the causes of the disruptions.
On Monday alone, 1,484 flights were canceled and another 8,097 experienced delays, according to the air traffic tracking site FlightAware, mainly due to stormy weather that has caused major flooding in the southwest and south of the country.
Also, by Tuesday morning there were already 396 cancellations and 598 delays.
chaos worsened over the weekend
With weather conditions expected to persist and humidity spreading from Texas to the lower Mississippi Valley over the next few days, expectations for the resumption of regular flights are not improving.
Athletes are not exempt from sleeping in airports
Flight delays and cancellations in the United States have also affected athletes, such as Nneka Ogwumike, a player for the Los Angeles Sparks in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA), who recounted on her Twitter account the frustration of herself and the rest of the team when the flight that was to take them was delayed three times before it was finally canceled.
"This is the first time in my 11 seasons that I've had to sleep at the airport. It was only a matter of time. So half of us are sleeping at the airport; the other half are in a hotel because there weren't enough rooms."
Nneka Ogwumike, player in the women's professional basketball league
Rain will continue over the southern United States
Cancellations and delays in airport scheduling could remain for a few days because "the very wet weather pattern will continue across portions of the southern United States from Texas to the lower Mississippi Valley over the next few days," Univision quotes the National Weather Service as saying.
According to that media outlet, rainfall reports in North Texas showed accumulations of 5 to 10 inches, in areas where drought conditions had worsened in recent months due to the lack of rain.
Free Daily USA
New York
