East coast blizzard prompts flight cancellations at Sea-Tac

SEATTLE -- Flights to the Northeast or returning from the East Coast to Sea-Tac were canceled Friday because of the blizzard slamming a wide area from Boston to New Jersey and Rhode Island.



For example, Jet Blue had three flight cancellations out of Sea-Tac Friday -- two were going to Boston and the other to New York. If you take all three flights into consideration, that was more than 400 passengers grounded.

American Airlines and United were some other carriers dealing with cancellations. Two would-be travelers from Canada drove to Sea-Tac Friday to find out their flight to Newark, N.J., was no more. So they have to spend the night in Seattle and try again on Saturday.

"I think everyone is panicking because of the storms, so we are not the only ones who are delayed. So when you go to book flights, there is only so many flights to connect us," said Michelle Hamlyn.

"It's a long day. The frustrating thing is the 13-hour layover that we going to have to deal with," said her fellow traveler, Adam Donnelly.

The couple were hoping to get a flight to Atlanta so they could connect there and get to their final destination -- the Dominican Republic.

Only 30 percent of flights at Sea-Tac are connecting flights.