Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - After days of sitting idle with snow clearing efforts underway, the Buffalo Niagara International Airport was quiet on reopening day Wednesday. On the overhead arrivals and departures boards, you could only see a small handful of arrivals and departures that were either delayed or on schedule, the rest being cancelled.
"We opened up at 11 o'clock this morning (Wednesday). We had our first flight come in around noon and the first one out about an hour later, so it's been very quiet for this time of year but steady and we haven't had any problems," says Helen Tederous, spokeswoman for the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority.
Tederous explains that late Friday morning, when the world-class snow removal team at the airport couldn't keep up with the brutal conditions and there was zero visibility, that's when they knew they had implement the rare occurrence of closing down the airport.
"We had been monitoring it, you know, closely for the days previously, we were working with the National Weather Service and then we knew Friday, late Friday morning that this was not a safe situation. It was not a safe airfield, and we decided to close down the airfield until further notice Friday in the afternoon, just before one o'clock."
Tederous explains that those who have been with the airport for years and experienced professionals, such as Buffalo Niagara International's Airfield Superintendent Joe Guarino, hasn't seen anything quite like this storm in all of his years.
Tederous says that from opening to late this afternoon, a total of about 20-30 arrivals and departures occurred at the airport Wednesday.
Not a single flight, it would appear to be from Southwest Airlines, who are having problems all their own, apparently storm-related, according to their CEO.
The arrival and departure boards on 12/28/2022, the reopening date of Buffalo Niagara International, notice not a single Southwest flight is available.Max Faery, WBEN.
When will we see the airport with normal traffic flow, it's all contingent on the weather and Southwest of course, "It's going to depend on Southwest and the other airlines to determine when things kind of get back to normal. But, you know, things can improve very quickly, as we know, even though seem things seem to be very dire with all the cancellations and delays. We're hopeful that perhaps by you know, the weekend that we'll see normality at the airport," Tederous says.
Tederous has seen travelers more tired than frustrated, "I think people are so exhausted and tired with the weather and dealing with everything. They're beyond frustrated, they're drained and they're tired. I've seen a lot of really tired people here and I feel for them, because it's been a very long, long few days."
Chicago residents Matthew Cremins and Laura Bustamante wanted to fly back from Buffalo after Christmas, but obviously plans changed when the airport was shut down.
"Oh my gosh, it was hectic. My flight was delayed a bunch and her flights were canceled and we had to reschedule our flights. It was a mess," said Cremins. "She flew into Albany and then we had to drive here."
It was a tough time for Cremins, "I actually had to arrive in New York City and go up to meet part of my family and then we had to drive up to get her afterward, and then drive up to Buffalo. Yeah, so we did a lot to get here."
Most people who are checking flights were checking their phones, by downloading the apps associated with their airlines but not everything works out, "I use their app, actually [United]. So they notified me when the flight was canceled and it was pretty easy to rebook. Although my sister, she had a very confusing experience with United. The app was telling her that she needed to rebook, but it was also telling her she'd have to pay money to rebook and the prices were like, $1,000 or something like that. So she had to go on the phone for a really long time and talk to somebody before she could figure something out," said Jacob Brady, a native of Hamburg flying back to New York City.
Cremins said he tried to call the customer service for his airline for more assistance, but in the end when the lines were so busy. Matthew and Laura opted for checking regularly with the apps, which confirmed their flight was ready to go for that Wednesday afternoon."
