Thousands of flights have been canceled and the Port of New York & New Jersey closed its container terminal operations Monday morning as a blizzard swept through the northeastern U.S. and slammed the New York City and Boston metropolitan areas.
The historic snowstorm began Sunday, with snowfall rates accelerating upwards of 2 to 3 inches and wind gusts surpassing 30 miles per hour by early Monday morning, evoking travel bans on the road and forcing state governments from Maryland to Massachusetts to declare statewide emergencies. Snowfall was listed at 15 inches in Central Park, with Newark Liberty International Airport recording 18.3 inches of snow.
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According to a Monday morning update from the National Weather Service, the blizzard would make travel “nearly impossible from the DelMarVa Peninsula into southeastern New England.” Such conditions can throw a wrench in logistics planning.
In posts on X Monday morning, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ) confirmed that all gates and operations at APM Terminals Elizabeth, Port Newark Container Terminal, Maher Terminals, Port Liberty Bayonne and New York and Red Hook Barge Terminal were closed.
The terminals will determine late Monday when they will reopen.
Chassis depots across the two-state port complex including C&C Marsh Street Depot, Elizabeth Chassis Depot, Columbia Container and Bayonne Chassis Depot were also shuttered for the day.
East Coast Warehouse and Distribution, a logistics and warehousing service provider at the port that also serves as a centralized examination station (CES) for customs inspections, is also closed.
At the Port of Baltimore, Seagirt Marine Terminal and Ports America Chesapeake operations at Dundalk Marine Terminal are closed. Other public terminal operating hours are delayed.
Air cargo operations at major airports are likely to see delays amid mass flight cancellations. By 8 a.m. Monday, operations at the three major airports in the New York City metropolitan area were essentially shuttered entirely, with nearly 3,000 flights canceled.
According to data from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and PANYNJ, John F. Kennedy (JFK) International Airport had 1,087 cancellations, while LaGuardia Airport saw 1,025 flights scrapped. Newark Liberty had 861 cancellations.
As of noon Monday, 98 percent of flights leaving LaGuardia and 92 percent of flights departing from Newark Liberty and Boston Logan were canceled, according to FlightAware. At JFK, 89 percent of departures were cancelled.
UPS said services across the northeastern U.S. may be impacted by the severe winter weather.
While UPS facilities are providing pickup and delivery services as conditions permit, the logistics giant said “delays are possible,” specifically in Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island.
FedEx said the snowfall has impacted travel and transportation throughout the region across its Express, Ground and less-than-truckload Freight operations. At FedEx Express, more than 3,300 zip codes across Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont had no service.
FedEx Ground has no service across more than 2,100 zip codes, with those impacts expanding to dozens of locations in Virginia and Kentucky.
Thirty-four FedEx Freight service centers were closed due to the storm, while another three provided limited service.
Both UPS and FedEx say contingency plans are in place to help ensure that shipments arrive at their final destinations as quickly as possible.
Service guarantees from both logistics providers that typically provide a money-back refund or credit for transportation charges if a shipment is not delivered by a scheduled date or time, does not apply to shipments affected.
On-demand delivery services DoorDash and Grubhub suspended deliveries in New York City Sunday night in accordance with the city’s non-emergency travel ban, with was lifted Monday afternoon.
On the railroads, Norfolk Southern issued a customer advisory Saturday saying it was monitoring and preparing for the blizzard.
The railroad said it had been proactively preparing equipment, scheduling crews and evaluating customer and terminal impacts to combat the impacts of the storm.
All Norfolk Southern intermodal facilities are operating, with no terminal or gate closures planned. The railroad said that if conditions warranted, it would hold shipments at origin points or close origin ingates temporarily to minimize impacts.
The railroad, which has the widest presence of any Class I in the northeastern U.S., has not given an update since the snowfall.
