Hundreds from East Coast flights get a Tri-Cities sleepover thanks to Northwest storm
Hundreds of travelers who left New York and Washington, D.C., on Sunday spent an unexpected night in the Tri-Cities after a cold snap forced their flights to divert to the Tri-Cities Airport.
Two Alaska Airlines flights holding on approach to the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport found themselves taking a significant detour Sunday night as heavy snow caused chaos on the tarmac.
Alaska Airlines spokeswoman Bobbie Egan said a flight coming from JFK Airport in New York, and another from Reagan International Airport in D.C. were almost scheduled to land at SeaTac, when a snow-induced gridlock forced airport operators to call for a nationwide ground stop for Seattle, meaning all inbound traffic was suspended while the airport got the backup sorted out.
Altogether Alaska Airlines had to cancel 248 mainland flights scheduled to depart or arrive in Seattle. In all, more than 400 flights were canceled at SeaTac. Without knowing how long the stop would last, Alaska diverted the flights to Pasco for the night.
The diversion put 300 to 400 passengers in Tri-Cities hotels. The planes were a Boeing 737, which seats 160 to 200, and an Airbus 320, which can seat up to 190 passengers.
“We were really disappointed to have to do that,” Egan said about their flights.
She said passengers were put in Tri-Cities hotels overnight, either through the airline or on their own. If they chose to arrange their own lodging, Egan said Alaska will be reimbursing them for the cost.
“We are offering vouchers, and reimbursing guests who can receipts for reasonable hotel, food and transportation costs,” Egan said. “It may take us a while to get that processed, due to the amount of flights, but we will reimburse them.”
All the passengers were expected to be flown back to Seattle starting Monday afternoon, said Egan.
Alaska also canceled more than 120 flights on Monday and expected additional cancellations and delays throughout the day due to inclement weather. The airline is also offering waivers to allow travelers to reschedule flights through Jan. 2.
“Our guests are being notified if their flight is canceled. They’re also encouraged to check alaskaair.com or our mobile app before heading to the airport to verify the status of their flight,” Egan said. “We’re working as quickly as possible to get all our affected guests rebooked on other flights, while operating safely.”
Rebooking flights
To rebook flights, travelers can go to alaskaair.com to use a “flexible travel waiver.” Guests with travel scheduled between Dec. 22 and Jan. 2 can change their tickets online, with travel to be completed by Jan. 31, 2022.
“We apologize for the inconvenience our guests are experiencing due to flight delays and cancellations. We realize it’s incredibly frustrating when travel doesn’t go as planned,” Egan said.
More than 4,000 flights in the U.S. have been canceled since Friday, according to air traffic tracking website FlightAware.
Over the weekend about a dozen arriving or departing flights were canceled at the Tri-Cities Airport, with most going to or coming from Seattle or Salt Lake City.
Alaska Airlines told PBS news their cancellations were all weather related. Other airlines have also had to cancel flights due to surging COVID-19 rates.
Eight of the flights canceled at Tri-Cities airport on Sunday and Monday were SkyWest Airlines, and the others Horizon Airlines, which is operated by Alaska Airlines. SkyWest is contracted by several major airlines including Alaska, Delta and United.
A spokesperson for SkyWest told the Herald their cancellations are due to a mix of bad weather and COVID-19 concerns.
“SkyWest teams are working to recover after weather impacting several hubs, as well as increased COVID cases and quarantines amongst crewmembers, have resulted in higher than normal flight cancels through the weekend and today. We apologize for the inconvenience and are working to resume normal operations as quickly as possible.”
On Monday, about 280 flights in and out of SeaTac were canceled. For Tuesday, FlightAware had about 160 SeaTac flights listed as canceled. The Tri-Cities airport was looking at seven cancellations and other delays, mainly to and from SeaTac and Salt Lake.
This story was originally published December 27, 2021 at 4:56 PM.
