Helene leads to flight cancellations, delays at airports across US; nothing significant in DC area

Hurricane Helene, which weakened to a tropical storm Friday, led to large numbers of cancellations and delays at airports across the country – but nothing significant was seen in the Washington, D.C. region.

FOX 5’s Melanie Alnwick was at Reagan National Airport outside of Washington, D.C. on Friday morning where only a handful of departures were cancelled.

But hundreds of flights to and from airports in the southeast U.S. that closed Thursday due to Hurricane Helene were either scrubbed or delayed.

At Orlando International Airport, Florida’s busiest, there had been 77 flight cancellations in the past 24 hours, as of Friday morning, according to FlightAware.

Airports in Atlanta and Charlotte, North Carolina, remained open Friday morning but were reporting large numbers of cancellations and heavy delays. 

By 8 a.m. Friday, nearly 300 flights to or from Charlotte, a major hub for American Airlines, had been canceled. Nearly 400 more, to or from Charlotte, were delayed, according to FlightAware.

At the larger Atlanta airport, more than 130 flights were canceled and more than 180 delayed, according to FlightAware.

Check Arrivals & Departures at Reagan National, Dulles International, and BWI.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.