New York storm causes air travel delays at 3 metro airports, across U.S.

Thursday’s torrential thunderstorms delayed flights at Kennedy, LaGuardia and Newark airports, snarling air traffic across the nation on the eve of what experts say will be the busiest Memorial Day travel weekend in nearly 20 years.

The thunderstorm, which brought heavy gusts and heavy rain, grounded flights at the three major area airports through the morning, the Federal Aviation Administration said.

The storm resulted in average departure delays of one 1 hour, 29 minutes at LaGuardia, according to FlightAware.com, which tracks flight activity. Inbound flights were seeing delays of 1 hour, 15 minutes, and inbound flights delayed at their airport of origin were running behind an average of 1 hour, 37 minutes.

Kennedy was experiencing departure delays averaging 1 hour, 5 minutes. At Newark, departures were delayed an average of 1 hour, 16 minutes. Arrival delays were averaging 45 minutes.

There were 101 delays and 10 cancellations between 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. at LaGuardia on Thursday, according to FlightAware.com. Kennedy experienced 43 delays and 11 cancellations during the same period, while 67 flights were delayed at Newark. 

The Transportation Security Administration said it will screen more than 18 million travelers during the seven-day period that began on Thursday, up 6.4% from last year. Friday is expected to be the busiest day for air travel, with nearly 3 million people passing through checkpoints. The TSA record, set on the Sunday after Thanksgiving last year, is 2.91 million.

AAA predicts this will be the busiest beginning-of-summer weekend since 2005. Nearly 49 million people are expected to travel at least 50 miles from home between Thursday and Monday.