Traveling by Air Today? Midwest, East Coast Blizzard Affecting Several Bay Area Flights

We may not be getting snow in the Bay Area on Friday, but local travelers are still feeling the impacts of Winter Storm Jonas. The blizzard rolling into the Midwest and East Coast has resulted in the cancellation of dozens of flights across the Bay Area, Patch confirmed.

“We have quite a few flights that are affected by the storms,” San Francisco International Airport Duty Manager Nancie Parker tells Patch. “What we have is a convergence of two different storms: our local storm ... and the east coast snow storms.”

Parker says airport officials are preparing for the El Nino storm hitting the Bay Area on Friday, which is expected to bring some strong winds with gusts up to 45 mph. And on the other side of the nation, some airports are preparing for as much as two feet of snow.

As such, Parker tells Patch that as of noon, there are a total of 68 departure cancellations out of SFO, and 49 arrival cancellations.

“We can attribute the east coast storm to 25 of those departures and 15 of those arrivals,” she said.

Parker says that though delays aren’t currently affecting travelers too bad, airport officials expect to see delays of up to three hours by the end of the day, when the airport institutes its ground delay program.

Over at Mineta San Jose International Airport, things so far have been running smoothly– but officials say that can change.

“There are no current impacts that we’re aware of,” airport Spokeswoman Rosemary Barnes tells Patch. “But we encourage those traveling to check in with their airlines before they head to the airport because that can change.”

Parker also urged anyone traveling out of SFO airport to be sure to check with their airlines on their flight statuses.

As for Oakland’s airport, Patch is still waiting to hear back from airport officials on how flights are being affected there, and we’ll update this breaking news article as more information becomes available.

Nationwide, there have been more than 3,000 flight cancellations and about 5,500 delays, according to FlightAware.com. However, those figures are not just for flights affected by the blizzard.

(Image via Shutterstock)