Blizzard cancels flights from Seattle to D.C., but planes still flying to New York

A blizzard descending on the the Eastern Seaboard is wreaking havoc on air travel, but some airports that were earlier expected to close appear to be escaping the worst. Planes from Seattle to New York City continued to fly Friday.

The brunt of the blizzard is expected to bury Washington, D.C., in more than two feet of snow. The National Weather Service said Friday that this could be one of the top three storms in the history of the nation’s capital.

Of four flights scheduled Friday from Sea-Tac to Washington, D.C.’s Dulles International Airport, three have been canceled, including Alaska Airlines Flight 728, which was to have departed at 9:50 a.m., and two United flights. The one uncanceled Dulles flight, with Southwest Airlines, was the earliest scheduled, departing Sea-Tac at 5:45 a.m.

Flights from Seattle to New York’s JFK airport are operating on time Friday, according to FlightView, a service that tracks air flights. No cancellations from Sea-Tac to JFK were shown at 9:30 a.m. Friday, but check with your airline for updates into the weekend. Delta and American airlines have already canceled Saturday morning flights from Seattle to JFK.

The storm system is expected to drop at least 10 inches of snow on New York, forecasts say, and 18 inches in Philadelphia. Alaska Airlines’ daily flight from Seattle to Philadelphia departed at 8:30 a.m. Friday. Alaska’s Friday flight to Baltimore was canceled.

For more details on canceled flights in and out of Sea-Tac, check FlightView.

The Associated Press reports that all major airlines have issued waivers for the weekend, allowing passengers to rebook onto earlier or later flights to avoid the storms. More than 2,400 flights were canceled in the U.S. Friday, and another 2,400 Saturday, according to FlightAware. The bulk of Friday’s cancellations were in Charlotte and Raleigh, North Carolina; Saturday’s cancellations center on Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and — to a lesser extent — New York. By Sunday afternoon, airlines hope to be back to full schedule to handle business travelers heading out for the week.

This story was originally published January 22, 2016 at 2:03 PM with the headline "Blizzard cancels flights from Seattle to D.C., but planes still flying to New York."