Sandy quiets our airspace

While the excitement over the approach of Sandy ramps up, our National Airspace System has become oddly quiet. Given the approach of the large system and expected wind speeds, air traffic within the New England area has become severely restricted. All three of the major NY airports, as well as DCI, BWI, PHL, and other smaller regional airports have grounded both in and outbound flights until early Tuesday. BOS and other airports in path will likely join that list in the coming hours as Sandy makes landfall. Additionally, airports such as ATL have already implemented ground delay programs. Thus far 7,500 flights and counting have been cancelled, the majority of which are due to the storm.

Shown below are two visible images; one from yesterday morning (top) as operations were still running normally overall, and the other from this morning (bottom) as Sandy nears the coast of New England. Note the significantly increased amount of empty airspace in an area (the Golden Triangle) in which air traffic is typically the busiest.

121028 1425 UTC visible imagery and ASDI flight routes

121029 1410 UTC visible imagery and ASDI flight routes

While the New England area is feeling the brunt of Sandy, the airports there will certainly not be the only centers affected. Any significant weather impacting a region of airspace creates a ripple effect, as many planes don't often hop back and forth between the same airports during the day. For example, a flight from JFK may go to ORD and then on to LAX. If that plane is stuck in JFK, the LAX flight will be subsequently affected. Additionally, flight crew will be displaced. Given their differing duties and work schedules, pilots, first officers, and flight attendants generally split up after each flight. So, if the crew assigned an JFK to ORD flight are stuck in JFK, the flights they were meant to be on out of ORD will be delayed until replacements can be found. Sandy has already caused delays and cancellations across the country, and even across the globe as some international flights are unable to reach there destinations on the East Coast.

In preparation for Sandy, as many planes as possible were moved from the airports at which complete ground stops were expected. This was done in an effort to lessen the amount of displaced airplanes and subsequently the overall impact of the storm itself. However, the cost to the airlines will still be high as they have been refunding those whose flights were cancelled and waiving fees, and are required to put displaced crew and some passengers into hotels if necessary until the storm blows over.

For additional information and loops of Sandy and our airspace system, please check the GOES-R National Perspectives blog for a sister post to this one, which I will likely post later this afternoon.