SA shippers escape fall-out as 3000 flights are cancelled

Last week, on Tuesday January 21, the US east coast was hit by the second major winter storm of the year, with up to 30 centimetres (a foot in the old Imperial measure) of snow, strong winds and bitter cold. More than 3 000 flights were cancelled in the US by the end of the Tuesday. About 1 470 flights were scrapped across the industry on the Wednesday, with the busy airports serving New York, Boston and Philadelphia the hardest hit, according to data tracker FlightAware. But, if Andrea Huguely, an American Airlines Group spokeswoman, is to be believed then SA traders with the US shouldn’t have been too hard hit. She said in an e-mail. “Most of the cancellations were regional flights.” New York’s LaGuardia Airport lost the largest share of flights, including a 34% drop in take-offs as airlines sought to ensure that no planes were snowbound. It’s a base for American and Delta Air Lines Inc. (DAL), while commuter airline JetBlue’s operations were disrupted at New York’s John F. Kennedy International and Boston’s Logan. FlightAware reported cancellations for SkyWest Inc’s ExpressJet. Also American, United Continental Holdings (UAL) and Delta – the three biggest US carriers. Rail operator Amtrak also began to cut back train services on the Tuesday afternoon along its popular north-eastern route. Behind the storm were very cold temperatures, Chris Vaccaro, a spokesman for the US weather service told the BBC, with temperatures around minus 18C in some areas. Factor in the wind, he added, and temperatures hit -26C. With these wind chills in New York City causing the mercury to plummet into the negative teens, the city’s Office of Emergency Management called the conditions “life-threatening,” citing increased risk of hypothermia and frostbite.