How will Hurricane Helene affect airline flights this week?
PHOENIX (AZFamily) — As Hurricane Helene barrels towards the Florida coast, there will certainly be flight delays and cancellations over the next few days.
“All commercial flight operations at TPA are suspended Thursday,” Tampa International Airport announced on its website on Thursday. “The Airport will remain closed to the public until it can assess any damage after the storm.”
On the City of Tallahassee website, it was announced that Tallahassee International Airport would also be closed until further notice.
The storm will make landfall near the Big Bend area of Florida later today bringing a potentially catastrophic storm surge, wind damage, and flooding rain.
Airport impacts won’t necessarily be limited to coastal Florida. Helene is expected to move north into Georgia overnight, but rain will spread to many other states, such as the Carolinas, Alabama, Tennessee, and parts of the Ohio Valley.
If you have a flight into locations like Atlanta, Nashville, or Charlotte late Thursday or early Friday morning, you should probably check with the airline about your flight, as delays or cancellations are possible.
The storm may start to lose its tropical characteristics by late Friday morning and into the afternoon, but rain and wind could still affect some flights.
If you have a flight into Memphis, St. Louis, Cincinnati, or Washington D.C., it’s not a bad idea to check the flight status ahead of time. These airports won’t necessarily have cancellations, but delays are possible.
Because this is such a large and disruptive storm, flight delays may extend to cities that are not affected by weather. This is due to the backlog of delays at airports in the storm’s path, which could affect those airplanes getting to other parts of the country.
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