Severe weather creating Boston Logan Airport travel nightmare

Travelers heading to or from Boston’s Logan International Airport on Thursday spent a significant amount of time either waiting on planes for a gate or waiting inside the airport terminal for their delayed flight to depart.Video from Sky 5 showed dozens of planes parked on Logan Airport taxiways, waiting for a gate for their arriving flights to park. The Federal Aviation Administration placed Boston in what’s known as a traffic management program for arriving flights and was delaying departures for over an hour due to thunderstorms across parts of the Northeast. Latest FAA air traffic control delaysThe bulletin also cited Delta gate issues and surface congestion for the delays. Flight tracking website FlightRadar24 showed several inbound Delta flights diverting to Providence, Detroit, Baltimore and Norfolk, Virginia. Additionally, flights bound for the New York City area airports were delayed between two and three hours due to weather.The combination of planes that could not depart due to weather conditions in other cities and the number of arriving flights created a parking lot of planes across the airport. FlightRadar24 showed some planes that landed at the airport before 4 p.m. still waiting at gates after 7 p.m. Some passengers on board Delta flights said they were told a security incident was behind some of the delays, but Massport said that was not the case. “There is no security incident or evacuation at Boston Logan,” Massport said on social media. “The aircraft delays are due to weather in other parts of the country.””Weather challenges at airports across the northeast have caused congestion for both arrivals and departures at Boston Logan International Airport,” a statement from Delta Air Lines said. “We apologize to customers for any inconvenience as Delta teams work with to get customers on their way as quickly and safely as possible.”Airlines canceled more than 1,500 flights in the U.S. on Thursday, one of the worst days yet for travel as the peak summer vacation season heats up.At LaGuardia Airport in New York, more than one-third of all flights were scrubbed, and more than one-fourth of flights were dropped at nearby Newark Liberty airport in New Jersey, according to tracking service FlightAware.Airlines are struggling with shortages of workers, especially pilots, that are hurting their ability to operate all their planned flights. Pilot unions at Delta, American and Southwest have said their airlines were too slow to replace pilots who retired or took leaves of absence during the early part of the pandemic.Two Senate Democrats said this month that the holiday weekend performance “raises questions about airline decision-making.” Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Edward Markey of Massachusetts said delays and cancellations “are occurring so frequently that they are becoming an almost-expected part of travel.”Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.

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