High winds, cold cause air delays in region's airports, FAA says

Delays on inbound flights to LaGuardia and Kennedy airports had peaked at up to two hours due to high winds and frigid temperatures Monday night but were scaled down to about 15 minutes on incoming and outgoing flights by 10:30, according to Federal Aviation Administration alerts.

More than three-hour delays on flights destined for Newark Airport, though, continued late into the night.  

"Due to WEATHER / WIND, there is a Traffic Management Program in effect for traffic arriving Newark International Airport, Newark, NJ (EWR)," read a post on the FAA’s Airport Status Information service. "This is causing some arriving flights to be delayed an average of 3 hours and 12 minutes."

Outbound flights to airports in the northeast were worse off, with flights to Boston being delayed for nearly six hours, officials said.

LaGuardia and Kennedy airports had seen similar delays on inbound flights earlier in the evening, but those problems were reported to have subsided substantially by 10:30 p.m., when both airports logged 15-minute delays in hold and taxi times for departures and airborne traffic for incoming flights, the FAA said.

Officials at MacArthur Airport on Long Island and at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the three airports, could not be reached for comment.

Strong winds and frigid temperatures have affected the region since Monday and aren't expected to ease until Tuesday afternoon or later, the National Weather Service said.

The Long Island Rail Road, which dealt with a broken rail near the Cold Spring Harbor station for the Monday morning commute, reported another broken rail near the East Williston station on Monday night. That led to some eastbound delays on the Oyster Bay branch, the LIRR said.

PSEG Long Island said online that there were about 50 electricity outages affecting about 500 customers at just before 9 p.m. The utility said just before 11:30 p.m. that there were 29 outages affecting 181 customers.