Florida airports opening up Thursday evening, Friday, as Milton heads out to sea
John Fedor, of New Jersey, waits for transportation help to get to a shelter after his flight was canceled Tuesday at the Tampa International Airport. Credit: AP/Chris O'Meara
Most of Florida's major airports will reopen Friday, while Palm Beach and Orlando International Airport began offering limited service Thursday, as Hurricane Milton headed out to sea.
Long Island MacArthur, Kennedy, LaGuardia and Newark airports still have no flights to Orlando, which will begin receiving a limited number of domestic flights Thursday evening, according to the airport's homepage. Departure and international flight operations are expected to fully resume at Orlando on Friday.
Orlando-Sanford, Southwest Florida in Fort Myers and Tampa airports are all still suspended, but plan to reopen and resume operations Friday, according to their respective homepages. JetBlue, United and Delta have flights to Fort Myers scheduled Friday from Kennedy, LaGuardia and Newark.
Sarasota Bradenton International Airport will remain closed both Thursday and Friday, airport officials announced through social media.
Thursday morning, Palm Beach International reported it had "experienced no major damage to facilities due to Hurricane Milton." The airport began welcoming arriving flights Thursday afternoon, but advised passengers scheduled to depart from the airport to "check with your airline before coming to the airport due to flight cancellations."
As of Thursday, at least 1,081 outbound flights and 1,045 inbound flights at major Florida airports had been canceled.
At least 194 flights to and from Florida were canceled and 46 delayed at Long Island area airports, including MacArthur, Kennedy, LaGuardia and Newark, according to FlightAware.
The storm also prompted closures of theme parks and attractions across central Florida, including Disney World.
Southwest had two flights from MacArthur to Palm Beach International Airport, with a layover in Baltimore, scheduled for Thursday afternoon.
Delta Air Lines had several flights scheduled to leave from Kennedy and LaGuardia for Palm Beach International Thursday afternoon. Likewise, United had several flights scheduled from Newark to Palm Beach International Thursday.
The storm tracked to the south in the final hours and made landfall as a Category 3 hurricane Wednesday night in Siesta Key, about 70 miles south of Tampa, before crossing the state and heading out to the Atlantic. While it caused considerable damage and water levels may rise for days, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said it was not "the worst-case scenario."
With Nicholas Grasso
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