CHEEKTOWAGA, N.Y. — The last flight out of or into the Buffalo Niagara International Airport left for Charlotte at 7:52 p.m. Thursday as lake effect snow has forced countless passenger cancellations.
Arrivals and departures number in the single digits over the next 12 hours, with the ability to takeoff or touchdown dependent on the weather.
“I've been rebooked, rescheduled four or five times now,” Kyle Metz said.
Rochester native Kyle Metz had his trip home from Los Angeles canceled, and his hopes of attending the Buffalo Bills game dashed after the NFL announced a move to Detroit on Thursday.
“I booked this flight six months ago, this trip eight months ago. … I wanted to go to a game in Buffalo in the year they win the Super Bowl," Metz said.
He went to his favorite bar after getting the bad news and canceled his flight 30 minutes after speaking with 2 On Your Side.
Southwest announced Thursday that all its flights to and from Buffalo would be canceled Friday, but the exodus of air travel didn't stop there.
United, American, JetBlue, and Frontier all made similar moves as the night went on, with the earliest scheduled flight in or out of Buffalo set for around 1 p.m. Friday, at the posting of this article.
Some Buffalonians like Beth Sardina of Hamburg were not willing to risk their vacation, a Disney Cruise, and rescheduled last minute.
“Last night we just decided we're going to have to pay to get out Thursday because I don't think we're getting out if we wait until Friday,” Sardina said.
As she and her family are headed to warmer weather, Justin Sicienski drove straight through the snow with a co-worker. Their Friday flight home from a business trip in Chicago was canceled.
“I have never seen anything where just all of a sudden all of the flights have been canceled to the entire airport,” Sicienski said.
The two grabbed a rental car and spoke with 2 On Your Side as they passed into Ohio.
The eight-and-a-half-hour drive got all the more difficult as they entered New York. Sicienski sent video of the Angola rest stop packed to the brim with tractor-trailers. With their young families waiting in Western New York, they worried about leaving them alone during the lake effect storm.
“It was just kind of, we try to get home and we drive home today or we felt like we might be stuck in Chicago until Sunday,” Sicienski said.
As of 10 p.m. Thursday, only two cargo flights are expected to land or depart before Friday afternoon. It’s unclear whether the constant snow could force the few remaining afternoon flights to cancel before morning.