Orange smog from Canadian wildfires delayed travelers at New York City-area airports Wednesday, with traffic briefly stopped at LaGuardia Airport and heavily delayed at Newark Airport.
LaGuardia was subject to a brief ground stop that was lifted at 2 p.m., but flight headaches continued throughout the day due to low visibility.
Flights into LaGuardia were delayed an average of two hours, while departing flights were delayed by 30 minutes on average, according to the FAA.
In all at LaGuardia, 45% of incoming flights were delayed and 3% were canceled, according to air travel monitor FlightAware. An estimated 37% of departing flights were also delayed out of LaGuardia. Both rates were worst in the U.S. on Monday.
Flights into Newark-Liberty International were also delayed an average of 80 minutes throughout the morning and early afternoon. Some 25% of arriving flights and 17% of departing flights were delayed at Newark.
Kennedy was least impacted by the smoke, with delays affecting 10% of incoming and 8% of outgoing flights, FlightAware said.
“[JFK] is currently experiencing arrival and departure delays due to low visibility caused by smoke conditions in the region,” airport officials tweeted in the late afternoon. “Please check with your airline to determine the status of your flight and allow extra travel time to the airport.”
New York’s air quality Wednesday afternoon was ranked worst in the world by a significant margin, according to international monitors.
The hazardous air conditions were caused by a series of wildfires in southeast Canada. Toronto’s air quality ranked fourth-worst among large cities on Wednesday afternoon, and Detroit was also in the top 20.
