What should have been a busy return home after Christmas instead turned into an overnight ordeal for hundreds of travelers stuck inside John F. Kennedy International Airport as a powerful snowstorm barreled into New York City and the surrounding region.
According to the New York Post, as snow piled up across the tri-state area Friday night, flight boards at JFK filled with red cancellation notices.
The sudden wave of scrapped departures left exhausted passengers sitting on terminal floors, surrounded by suitcases, coats, and restless children while waiting for answers that never seemed to come.
“I came to New York to have a ‘Home Alone’ Christmas just by myself,” said Danniel Sermone, 31, whose flight back to Denver was canceled early Friday.
“I wanted to hang out. I went shopping, and went to Times Square, crossed up there for a while with the big crowd. My next available flight is at 6 a.m. on the 28th. So I have been hanging out at JFK for about eight hours and still got like 30 left.”
The storm prompted state officials to place more than half of New York under a state of emergency, with forecasts calling for close to a foot of snow in some areas by Saturday afternoon.
By Friday evening, JFK had logged 158 canceled flights and 204 delays — the highest total of any airport in the country that day, according to FlightAware.
International travelers were among the hardest hit.
“We don’t know when we can go back to Brazil,” said Mara Pimenta, who arrived in New York from São Paulo with her husband and two young children for a Christmas vacation.
“I have been on hold for an hour waiting with some guy. He said maybe the 29th we have a flight. He told me to just wait. I have nothing. No information, nothing. I just have a lot of luggage and two children.”
Pimenta said her Latam Airlines flight was canceled without warning, and when her family arrived at the airport, the check-in counter was empty. Compounding the stress, their hotel was fully booked.
“How can you have an airline with no customer care during a weather emergency?” asked Chaithanya Sing, who sat on the terminal floor holding her 9-month-old baby.
The 32-year-old said her Air France flight to India was canceled and shifted to Etihad Airlines, but her infant’s ticket was not transferred.
“I went to Terminal One to speak to someone at Air France, and there was no one, it’s like a ghost counter,” Sing said. Her husband added the situation was “very depressing because my daughter was going to meet her grandparents for the first time.”
Nearby airports were also hit hard. Newark Liberty International Airport reported 107 cancellations, while LaGuardia Airport saw 90 flights scrapped, with hundreds more delayed.
Forecasters warned the storm could intensify overnight, dumping snow at rates exceeding two inches per hour. A winter storm warning remained in effect through early Saturday afternoon.
“New Yorkers should all prepare — avoid driving if possible and give yourself extra travel time with public transit if you do need to travel,” Mayor Eric Adams said.
“Stay alert to changing conditions, and sign up for Notify NYC for real-time information updates.”
