Air travelers across North America are facing a bruising end to the holiday season as Winter Storm Devin collides with powerful wind gusts, triggering massive delays and cancellations at some of the continent’s busiest hubs.

Toronto Pearson, Newark Liberty, New York LaGuardia, Chicago’s airports and Tampa International have all reported severe operational disruptions over the past 24 to 48 hours, with airlines scrambling to rework schedules and passengers confronting snaking lines, rolling delays and last‑minute cancellations.

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Storm Devin Slams Northeast and Great Lakes as Holiday Peak Continues

Winter Storm Devin has moved from the Midwest into the densely populated Northeast just as airports were operating near peak capacity for the New Year travel window.

Meteorologists describe Devin as a classic winter system combining heavy, wet snow, pockets of freezing rain and strong gradient winds, a combination that is particularly punishing for aviation.

The most intense impacts have been centered on the New York City metropolitan area and southern Ontario, but the storm’s broad circulation has also fueled disruptive winds as far south as Florida and westward through the Great Lakes corridor.

Flight tracking data over the weekend and into Tuesday shows that Devin has already been linked to thousands of delayed and canceled flights across the United States and Canada.

Industry analysts say the storm’s timing is amplifying the pain: aircraft are already tightly scheduled and most flights are going out nearly full during the holiday period, leaving little slack in the system to absorb weather‑related disruptions.

Even airports outside the main snow bands are suffering secondary impacts as aircraft and crews end up out of position.

In the New York area, where Newark Liberty and LaGuardia are feeling the brunt of Devin’s high winds and low ceilings, air traffic managers have repeatedly reduced arrival and departure rates to maintain safe spacing between aircraft.

That has rippled westward into Chicago and north into Toronto as airlines attempt to rebalance transborder and transcontinental networks that depend heavily on those key hubs.

Toronto Pearson: Blizzard, Freezing Rain and a Mounting Backlog

Toronto Pearson International, Canada’s busiest airport, has been grappling with disruptive winter weather since the weekend.

A powerful storm system that local outlets describe as a blizzard brought heavy snow and periods of freezing rain across southern Ontario, snarling operations during one of the busiest stretches of the year.

Canadian aviation data indicated more than a thousand cancellations nationwide over the weekend, with Pearson alone accounting for several hundred of those as runways were periodically closed for plowing and de‑icing.

Airport officials say “winter‑hold” protocols have remained in place, with convoys of plows and blowers working continuously to keep runways and taxiways open.

De‑icing pads have become chokepoints as crews race to remove ice accretion from wings and control surfaces in sub‑freezing temperatures.

While Pearson stresses that safety remains the top priority, the operational costs are clear: any time spent de‑icing or waiting for a cleared runway adds to departure queues and can force arriving aircraft into airborne holding patterns.

Passengers at Pearson have faced a familiar litany of winter‑storm frustrations: long security and check‑in lines, last‑minute gate changes and rolling delays that push flights back by hours, followed in some cases by abrupt cancellations when crew duty‑time limits are reached.

Canadian carriers have issued travel advisories and temporary fee waivers for travelers booked through Toronto in recent days, encouraging those with flexible plans to rebook outside the worst of the weather window.

Even as plows gradually restore capacity, the backlog of stranded passengers is expected to take days to clear.

Newark and LaGuardia Become Epicenter of U.S. Flight Disruptions

In the United States, the New York City region has emerged as the clear epicenter of Winter Storm Devin’s aviation fallout, with Newark Liberty and LaGuardia recording some of the highest volumes of cancellations and delays nationwide.

Between Friday and Sunday, data compiled from major carriers and flight‑tracking platforms indicated that the three major New York airports accounted for more than half of all U.S. cancellations tied to Devin.

As the storm lingered into early week, the Federal Aviation Administration continued to impose ground delay programs and flow restrictions to protect safe operations in reduced visibility and strong crosswinds.

At Newark Liberty, airlines have been forced to trim schedules sharply as gusty winds exceeding safe crosswind thresholds on key runways periodically halted takeoffs and landings. When conditions marginally improve, controllers have accepted fewer arrivals per hour than normal, lengthening airborne holds and driving up taxi‑out times.

The closely spaced runway layout and congested airspace around Newark, combined with its role as a major hub for domestic and transatlantic traffic, mean that even modest reductions in capacity rapidly cascade into system‑wide disruptions.

LaGuardia, long known as one of the nation’s most delay‑prone airports even in benign weather, has struggled with the twin challenges of low clouds and strong gusts over the East River.

Shorter runways and tight noise‑sensitive approach paths limit operational flexibility when conditions deteriorate.

Airlines have proactively canceled a significant number of departures from LaGuardia to avoid extended tarmac times and turnaround bottlenecks, but that has left travelers scrambling for scarce seats on remaining flights or being rerouted through alternative hubs such as Boston, Philadelphia or Washington.

Chicago and Tampa Grapple With High Winds and Network Ripple Effects

Chicago’s aviation system, anchored by O’Hare and Midway, has contended with its own dose of winter weather in recent weeks, including one of the heaviest single‑day snowfalls in a decade earlier this season.

As Devin swept eastward, Chicago was spared a direct hit from the storm’s heaviest snow bands, but lingering lake‑effect flurries and stiff winds have nonetheless hampered recovery at O’Hare.

Airlines reported wave after wave of knock‑on disruptions as flights inbound from the New York area and Toronto arrived late or not at all, forcing schedule reshuffles that rippled through domestic and international banks.

O’Hare’s role as a central hub for multiple large carriers magnifies the impact of even minor capacity cuts. A delayed arrival from Newark or LaGuardia can disrupt dozens of onward connections, stranding passengers as far afield as the West Coast and the Mountain West.

Ground handling crews are also contending with challenging ramp conditions, as partially cleared snowpack, icy service roads and wind chills slow the loading and fueling of aircraft.

While the Chicago Department of Aviation has emphasized that plow teams are fully deployed, the combination of wind and residual moisture can rapidly refreeze critical surfaces.

Farther south, Tampa International Airport has been dealing not with snow but with the wind envelope of Devin’s broad circulation.

Strong, shifting gusts in the vertical wind profile have triggered intermittent traffic management initiatives, as controllers widen spacing between departures and arrivals to maintain safety margins. That has led to rolling delays on popular holiday routes between Florida and the Northeast and Midwest.

Because Tampa is a key gateway for winter vacationers returning to colder climates after the holidays, the airport has seen crowded concourses and limited rebooking options as aircraft bound for New York, Chicago and Toronto are held or canceled when conditions at destination airports deteriorate.

Why High Winds and Ice Are So Disruptive for Airports

For passengers, it can be hard to understand why high winds or relatively modest accumulations of snow and ice can so quickly paralyze flight operations. Aviation experts point to a series of safety thresholds and operational constraints that airports and airlines must respect whenever winter weather or strong winds come into play.

While modern jets are engineered to handle a wide range of conditions, every runway has specific crosswind and tailwind limits beyond which pilots are prohibited from attempting takeoffs or landings.

When Devin’s gusts exceed those limits on a given runway direction, the only safe option is to suspend movements until winds subside or shift.

Even below those maximum thresholds, strong crosswinds and changing gust patterns force controllers to increase separation between aircraft in the air and on the ground. That reduces the number of arrivals and departures an airport can safely accommodate per hour, quickly creating queues in busy holiday traffic.

When visibility drops because of snow, blowing spray or low clouds, approach minima become another limiting factor: some aircraft cannot land if runway visual ranges fall below specified values, especially at airports without the most advanced instrument landing systems on every runway.

Ice and freezing rain add an additional layer of complexity. Any contamination on a wing or tail surface can degrade lift and control characteristics, so aircraft must pass through de‑icing and anti‑icing procedures before departure when precipitation is present and temperatures are near or below freezing.

These treatments take time and require specialized equipment and fluids. When many flights are scheduled to depart in a narrow time window, de‑icing pads and service trucks become bottlenecks, extending taxi‑out times and occasionally forcing crews to repeat the process if hold times are exceeded.

How Airlines and Airports Are Responding Behind the Scenes

As Winter Storm Devin has gathered strength, airline operations centers and airport control rooms have shifted into a form of emergency footing.

Major U.S. and Canadian carriers issued travel waivers ahead of the worst of the weather, allowing customers booked through affected airports such as Toronto Pearson, Newark, LaGuardia, Chicago and Tampa to change itineraries without standard penalties.

The goal is to flatten the demand curve at peak hours, reducing the number of passengers who end up stranded when cancellations become unavoidable.

Inside airport operations centers, staff coordinate closely with national air navigation services and meteorological agencies, updating forecasts and runway condition reports in near real time.

At Toronto Pearson and Chicago O’Hare, airport authorities have called in extra snow removal and de‑icing crews on extended shifts, operating convoys of plows between arrival banks and prioritizing the most critical runways for clearing.

In the New York region, ports authorities are working with the Federal Aviation Administration to adjust arrival and departure rates, sequence international traffic and manage diversions to secondary airports when necessary.

Despite visible frustration in terminals, many front‑line workers are operating under intense stress. Gate agents must rebook large numbers of passengers with limited seats available, while pilots and flight attendants face complex duty‑time constraints that restrict how long they can work in a single day or week.

When storms like Devin trigger rolling disruptions over multiple days, the logistics of getting crews and aircraft back into the right places can take well beyond the end of the weather event itself.

Industry observers say travelers should expect residual delays and occasional cancellations for several days after the storm’s core has passed.

What Stranded Passengers Can Do Right Now

For travelers caught in the middle of this latest wave of winter chaos, experts recommend acting quickly and using every available channel to manage disrupted plans.

Airline mobile apps and websites often update schedule changes before airport departure boards, and many carriers allow self‑service rebooking for passengers whose flights are canceled.

In some cases, moving to an earlier or later departure, or accepting a different connection city, can make the difference between getting home this week or facing multi‑day delays.

At heavily impacted hubs like Newark, LaGuardia and Toronto Pearson, same‑day alternatives may be scarce, especially to popular destinations.

Travel advisers suggest that passengers consider nearby airports as part of their contingency planning: for example, some New York‑bound travelers have opted for flights into Boston, Philadelphia or Baltimore, then completing their journeys by rail or rental car when road conditions allow.

Those in Chicago and Tampa might look at alternate routings through mid‑continent hubs less affected by Devin’s direct impacts.

Passengers should also be aware of their rights and of the distinction between weather‑related and airline‑controlled delays. In both the United States and Canada, weather disruptions generally do not obligate airlines to provide compensation, but many carriers will still offer meal vouchers, hotel discounts or priority standby options as a goodwill gesture when storms like Devin upend travel for large numbers of customers.

Travel insurance policies may provide additional reimbursement in some cases, particularly for extended delays, missed tours or prepaid accommodations.

FAQ

Q1: Which airports are currently experiencing the worst delays from Winter Storm Devin and high winds?
Toronto Pearson, Newark Liberty and New York LaGuardia are seeing some of the heaviest disruptions, with Chicago’s O’Hare and Midway and Tampa International also reporting significant delays and cancellations as the storm and associated winds affect different parts of their operations.

Q2: How long are these delays expected to last?
Meteorologists expect the most intense effects of Winter Storm Devin to ease within the next 24 to 48 hours in many regions, but aviation experts caution that residual delays and scattered cancellations could persist for several days as airlines work through backlogs and reposition aircraft and crews.

Q3: Why does wind cause so many problems even when there is not much snow?
Strong crosswinds and gusts can push aircraft beyond safe takeoff and landing limits on certain runways, forcing controllers to slow or temporarily halt operations. Even when conditions remain technically flyable, safety margins require increased spacing between aircraft, which sharply reduces the number of flights an airport can handle per hour.

Q4: Are airlines offering travel waivers for affected passengers?
Many major carriers have issued weather waivers for travel through key hubs such as Toronto, Newark, LaGuardia, Chicago and Tampa during the storm period, allowing one‑time changes without standard change fees. Fare differences may still apply, and eligibility windows vary by airline, so travelers should check directly with their carrier.

Q5: What should I do if my flight is canceled?
If your flight is canceled, use your airline’s app or website as soon as possible to search for alternative flights, and join the rebooking queue even as you wait to speak to an agent. If you booked through a travel advisor or online agency, contact them as well, since they may have additional tools to reissue tickets or reroute you.

Q6: Is it safer to drive instead of flying during this storm?
Driving is not necessarily safer, as Winter Storm Devin has also created hazardous road conditions, including icy surfaces and reduced visibility across large parts of the Northeast and Great Lakes. Authorities in several regions have urged motorists to avoid non‑essential travel during peak storm periods, so any decision to drive should be made carefully and based on local advisories.

Q7: Why can it take days to recover once the weather improves?
When widespread storms disrupt operations, aircraft and crews often end up in the wrong places and many passengers are left partway through multi‑segment itineraries. It takes time to rebuild normal schedules, move planes and staff back to where they are needed and clear the backlog of travelers who missed connections or whose flights were canceled.

Q8: Will airlines provide hotels or meals during weather‑related disruptions?
Airlines are generally not legally required to provide hotels or meals when disruptions are caused by weather, but many offer vouchers, discounts or priority standby as a courtesy, especially during large‑scale storms. Policies differ by carrier and by region, so travelers should review their airline’s customer service commitments and ask at the airport what assistance is available.

Q9: How can I best prepare if I have a flight in the next few days?
Travelers with upcoming flights should monitor weather forecasts and flight status frequently, enroll in airline text or app alerts and consider traveling with extra medications, chargers and essentials in carry‑on bags in case of extended delays. If your plans are flexible, proactively moving your trip outside the peak disruption window can reduce the risk of getting stranded.

Q10: Are smaller regional airports less affected than major hubs?
Some smaller airports outside the core storm track may experience fewer direct weather impacts, but they can still see cancellations and delays if their flights feed into heavily affected hubs like Toronto, Newark, LaGuardia or Chicago. In many cases, disruptions at large nodes in the network propagate outward, so passengers at regional airports should also follow updates closely.