Charlotte airport cancellations and delays soar for 2nd day after record snowstorm

Cancellations and delays soared for a second day at Charlotte’s airport Saturday after a record snowstorm in the Queen City.

By 12:30 p.m. Saturday, 188 flights were canceled and 126 delayed at the airport, according to Flight Aware.com, which tracks flights at U.S. airports. By 5 p.m., 194 flights were canceled and 206 delayed.

“Please make sure to check the status of your flight with your airline before coming to the airport,” Charlotte Douglas International Airport said Saturday on its social media accounts. The airport is open and operational, and its staff continues to assist customers and partners as needed, CLT officials said Saturday.

Charlotte broke a 39-year-old record when 1.9 inches of snow fell during Friday night’s storm, the National Weather Service reported Saturday.

The previous record for a Jan. 21 snowfall was set in 1983, when 0.5 inches fell, according to the NWS.

Subfreezing temperatures left many roads icy, and traveling on them was not worth the risk of a wreck, officials said.

Friday cancellations

Ahead of the storm, 136 flights were canceled at the airport Friday, according to FlightAware, and 234 flights were delayed.

Fifty-three of Friday’s canceled flights were flying into CLT and 83 were departing the Charlotte airport, according to FlightAware.

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Earlier on Friday, the Federal Aviation Administration had warned there could be flight delays at CLT due to snow or low clouds.

The airport deployed winter weather pre-treatment of at least one runway in advance of snow moving in on Friday.

From midnight to 1:30 p.m. Saturday, another 191 flights were canceled and 136 delayed at CLT, according to Flight Aware.com, as the numbers climbed through the morning.

Screens show flight departures and cancellations at Charlotte Douglas International Airport on Saturday, January 22, 2022 in Charlotte, NC. The weather system grounded hundreds of flights. As of 12:30 p.m. Saturday, at least 186 flights have been canceled at Charlotte Douglas International Airport. Some 140 flights were scrubbed on Friday, when Winter Storm Jasper dropped 1.9 inches of snow at the airport — a record amount for Jan. 21st.

Concord airport

In Cabarrus County, the runway at Concord-Padgett Regional Airport remained closed because of snow and ice, city officials said.

Concord-Padgett Regional Airport shut down its runway just after 10:30 p.m. Friday because of snow, according to its Twitter account.

”Crews are working diligently to reopen the runway as soon as possible,” according to the tweet.

Social media musings

Some passengers whose flights were canceled or delayed posted video, photos and musings on social media while stuck at the airport.

“Im going to just sit and rock in this chair until God gives me my next Move!” a man posted in a video on Instagram showing him rocking in one of CLT’s famous rocking chairs.

And a CLT tarmac worker posted a video on Instagram that he said a flier took of him dancing on ice and otherwise “goofing off” when no flights were taking off or landing during the storm.

Last Sunday’s storm

Last Sunday during an earlier winter storm, over 1,220 flights, including more than 560 by American Airlines, were canceled at CLT, according to FlightAware.com.

American operates 90% of flights out of the airport. At the time, over 400 flights scheduled for the next day also had been canceled, including nearly 150 for American.