Travelers headed for the East Coast from Northwest Arkansas met with a few canceled flights at Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport on Monday. As Hurricane Sandy neared landfall in the Northeast, airplanes were grounded in some of that region’s largest airports, and the cancellations affected a few nonstop dailyflights from Northwest Arkansas Regional.
Incoming and outbound flights from Newark, N.J.; Washington’s Reagan National Airport and New York’s LaGuardia Airport were canceled. The outlook for today was uncertain, said Scott Van Laningham, executive director of the airport, but morning flights to Newark had already beencanceled by Monday afternoon.
Van Laningham said travelers going to those three cities should check with their air carriers for updated information.
“They should do that before coming to the airport,”he said. “They can call us, but it’s their air carrier that makes that call [to cancel]. It’s done carrier by carrier.”
Van Laningham said the three outgoing flights that were canceled Monday probably disrupted plans for at least 150 passengers.
The flight schedule was normal at Fort Smith Regional Airport, said director John Parker. The airport does not have direct flightsto the Northeast but passengers making connecting flights in other cities, such as Atlanta, could have been affected, Parker said.
“The airlines are the best point of contact for passengers to keep abreast of what the flight schedule changes are,” he said.
The website for Tulsa International Airport showed no cancellations and a 10 p.m. inbound flight from Newark was listed as “on time” for Monday night.
According to The Associated Press, more than 7,000 flights were canceled across the Northeast region.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 9 on 10/30/2012