Wildfires Disrupt Travel Nationwide

October 28, 2003

Wildfires Disrupt Travel Nationwide
October 28, 2003 – The wildfires in California have disrupted air traffic nationwide and forced weekend visitors on their way back from Las Vegas to find alternate routes, according reports from the Associated Press and CNN.

Aircraft scheduled to fly to Los Angeles International Airport, San Diego’s Lindbergh Field and other regional airports were grounded for varying lengths of time. Los Angeles-bound flights were delayed an average of about six hours. By late afternoon, the average delay was down to just over three hours, but the longest delays had grown to more than 16 hours.

About 100 flight cancellations were recorded by major airlines at Los Angeles International between midmorning and 5 p.m. Sunday. By Sunday evening, FAA controllers at Los Angeles International were handling about half the normal hourly arrival rate of 70 aircraft.

Meanwhile, closure of Interstate 15 due to the wildfires snarled traffic across the Mojave Desert as people returning from a weekend in Las Vegas had to use different routes to get home. On the Pearblossom Highway, traffic crawled at 10 mph. A second route running through Lucerne Valley was bumper-to-bumper. On Highway 58 about 25 miles west of Barstow, cars backed up for seven miles during the afternoon.

For more information, visit http://www.cnn.com/2003/TRAVEL/10/27/wildfires.travel.ap/index.html.