Alaska Airlines cancels all flights in and out of PDX due to winter storm

PORTLAND, Ore. (KGW) — Alaska Airlines and Horizon have canceled all flights in and out of Portland International Airport (PDX) and Seattle Tacoma International Airport (SEA-TAC) until noon Friday due to an ice storm that arrived in Portland and the Pacific Northwest on Thursday night.

The airline said it has canceled more than 270 flights in and out of Portland and Seattle and will cancel or delay more flights if the weather doesn’t improve. Alaska Airlines said airport runways at SEA-TAC are closed because of unsafe weather conditions.

Alaska Airlines said there are flexible travel policies for travel to and from PDX and SEA-TAC due to the winter weather. Learn more about those policies here.

Despite the cancellations, which KGW’s Evan Watson estimated at 80-85% of all flights, there were still a lot of flyers waiting in customer service lines Friday morning at United, Delta, American and Alaska, Watson reported. That included a family of 29 hoping to get to Hawaii. They told Watson they’ve been planning the trip for 4.5 years.

Before the ice storm even hit Portland Thursday evening, high winds in the area and severe winter weather elsewhere in the country prompted a round of flight delays and a few cancellations Thursday morning and afternoon at Portland International Airport.

The airport’s online arrivals and departures board showed a growing list of canceled and delayed flights over the course of the day that only grew overnight.

The cancellations and delays include flights to and from Denver, where a monster winter storm has grounded hundreds of flights, but they also cover a wide range of national and international destinations.

Some of the cancellations in Portland began as early as Wednesday, according to Port of Portland media relations manager Kama Simonds, although they were primarily due to weather in other parts of the country.

Travelers with questions about their flights should contact their airline, or use their airline’s app or website to avoid long wait times on the phone, she said. They can also keep an eye on flight status information at flypdx.com.

Travelers whose flights have been canceled should not go to the airport, Simonds said, but should stay safely at home and call their airline to reschedule.

The Port of Portland, which operates the airport, is one of many local agencies that have been working this week to prepare for the ice storm. Crews at the airport will deploy specialized equipment to keep the airfield clear of snow and ice, Simonds explained earlier this week.