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American Morning
Stranded Travelers, Airport Delays
Aired February 18, 2003 - 07:06 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: This morning, as you can imagine, thousands of travelers across the country are stuck because of the heavy snow. Even travelers at airports where the weather is good are affected, because for many, their destinations were hit by the storm and planes can't get in there.
Bob Franken joins us at Washington's Reagan National Airport, which reopens today, and Travelocity's Rally Caparas is in Atlanta following all of the airport delays.
Good morning, gentlemen. Let's start with you, Bob.
BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Paula, do you see this snow here?
ZAHN: I do.
FRANKEN: You're not supposed to be.
ZAHN: Why?
FRANKEN: It's supposed to have been gone, but the problem is not with your set. The problem is with the weather. The weather is, in fact, continuing to shower snow on the Washington area. This is supposed to be a flurry, but it's been flurrying just about since we got up this morning, which was far too long ago.
In any case, skiing conditions are excellent in Washington, but flying conditions still are not. They say that they're going to be opening the airport. You can see that they're scurrying around on their snowplows trying to clear the runways and stay ahead of things. You can see a plane sitting out there. It's still got snow on it, so you're going to have to go through all of the de-icing procedures.
Inside the airport, it is the kind of mob that you would expect to see. The lines are even longer than normal. The lines are the pent-up travel demands of people who have been waiting for a couple of days to get out of this airport or Dulles airport, which had one runway open only, or Baltimore-Washington airport.
You can see the lines are very, very long, and the cancellation board has plenty of cancellations on it, but there are still some flights that hold a faint hope at least of getting out. The flights are scheduled, as I said, to begin here at Reagan airport.
But we started this by saying you are seeing snow that you're not supposed to be seeing. And of course, there are an awful lot of travelers who are hoping that this snow does not prevent things from finally getting revved up again -- Paula.
ZAHN: A hat might come in handy later, if those flurries continue, Bob.
FRANKEN: I have a hat on, Paula.
ZAHN: See you in a little bit. We'll let you warm up.
Now we're going to check with Rally Caparas, who has his eyes on the sky and all of the travel delays.
Good morning -- Rally. How are you doing this morning?
RALLY CAPARAS, TRAVELOCITY: Paula, I'm exhausted as many of those that were stranded yesterday at the nation's airports.
Here's what's happening today. Things are improving. However, what you can expect to see, imagine this: The United States is a huge chess table, and there are hundreds of thousands of chess pieces laid out across the country. And someone grabs a corner of the country and does one of these. The pieces are everywhere.
Crews are stuck. Airplanes are in the wrong locations, diverted because of the bad weather.
Here's what's going to happen as a result of that today, folks. If you're traveling today, it's not going to be a whole lot better than what you saw yesterday. If you're headed into Boston, Newark or JFK airports, you will see traffic move somewhat. There will be makeshift schedules, as you would expect. Snow, de-icing, snow removal is going to go on all day. Expect lengthy delays.
I've already seen over 700 cancellations into the Northeast today. It's not going to be that much of a change from yesterday outside of some movements that will take place.
LaGuardia is scheduled to open at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time. We'll see if that actually happens. Some more snow flurries moving into the area. There will be more cancellations, lots of long waits.
Philadelphia International is open. They opened last night late in the evening. Long waits into and out of that airport. There will be a high level of cancellations there.
Baltimore-Washington International has opened, but it's only for departure aircraft. They need to get those airplanes that have been stuck there, get the crews out, make some room at the gates. You won't see any arrivals until about 3:00 p.m.
I'll have the latest in 30 minutes.
Paula -- back to you in the studio.
ZAHN: Glad you made it to Atlanta. I know you had to change your travel plans to help us out. Thanks, Rally.
CAPARAS: Sure.
ZAHN: See you in our next half-hour.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
Aired February 18, 2003 - 07:06 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: This morning, as you can imagine, thousands of travelers across the country are stuck because of the heavy snow. Even travelers at airports where the weather is good are affected, because for many, their destinations were hit by the storm and planes can't get in there.
Bob Franken joins us at Washington's Reagan National Airport, which reopens today, and Travelocity's Rally Caparas is in Atlanta following all of the airport delays.
Good morning, gentlemen. Let's start with you, Bob.
BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Paula, do you see this snow here?
ZAHN: I do.
FRANKEN: You're not supposed to be.
ZAHN: Why?
FRANKEN: It's supposed to have been gone, but the problem is not with your set. The problem is with the weather. The weather is, in fact, continuing to shower snow on the Washington area. This is supposed to be a flurry, but it's been flurrying just about since we got up this morning, which was far too long ago.
In any case, skiing conditions are excellent in Washington, but flying conditions still are not. They say that they're going to be opening the airport. You can see that they're scurrying around on their snowplows trying to clear the runways and stay ahead of things. You can see a plane sitting out there. It's still got snow on it, so you're going to have to go through all of the de-icing procedures.
Inside the airport, it is the kind of mob that you would expect to see. The lines are even longer than normal. The lines are the pent-up travel demands of people who have been waiting for a couple of days to get out of this airport or Dulles airport, which had one runway open only, or Baltimore-Washington airport.
You can see the lines are very, very long, and the cancellation board has plenty of cancellations on it, but there are still some flights that hold a faint hope at least of getting out. The flights are scheduled, as I said, to begin here at Reagan airport.
But we started this by saying you are seeing snow that you're not supposed to be seeing. And of course, there are an awful lot of travelers who are hoping that this snow does not prevent things from finally getting revved up again -- Paula.
ZAHN: A hat might come in handy later, if those flurries continue, Bob.
FRANKEN: I have a hat on, Paula.
ZAHN: See you in a little bit. We'll let you warm up.
Now we're going to check with Rally Caparas, who has his eyes on the sky and all of the travel delays.
Good morning -- Rally. How are you doing this morning?
RALLY CAPARAS, TRAVELOCITY: Paula, I'm exhausted as many of those that were stranded yesterday at the nation's airports.
Here's what's happening today. Things are improving. However, what you can expect to see, imagine this: The United States is a huge chess table, and there are hundreds of thousands of chess pieces laid out across the country. And someone grabs a corner of the country and does one of these. The pieces are everywhere.
Crews are stuck. Airplanes are in the wrong locations, diverted because of the bad weather.
Here's what's going to happen as a result of that today, folks. If you're traveling today, it's not going to be a whole lot better than what you saw yesterday. If you're headed into Boston, Newark or JFK airports, you will see traffic move somewhat. There will be makeshift schedules, as you would expect. Snow, de-icing, snow removal is going to go on all day. Expect lengthy delays.
I've already seen over 700 cancellations into the Northeast today. It's not going to be that much of a change from yesterday outside of some movements that will take place.
LaGuardia is scheduled to open at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time. We'll see if that actually happens. Some more snow flurries moving into the area. There will be more cancellations, lots of long waits.
Philadelphia International is open. They opened last night late in the evening. Long waits into and out of that airport. There will be a high level of cancellations there.
Baltimore-Washington International has opened, but it's only for departure aircraft. They need to get those airplanes that have been stuck there, get the crews out, make some room at the gates. You won't see any arrivals until about 3:00 p.m.
I'll have the latest in 30 minutes.
Paula -- back to you in the studio.
ZAHN: Glad you made it to Atlanta. I know you had to change your travel plans to help us out. Thanks, Rally.
CAPARAS: Sure.
ZAHN: See you in our next half-hour.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
