Feb 17 (Reuters) – A terminal at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport was closed on Friday due to a power outage, affecting flights in and out at one of the world’s busiest hubs. world.
The blackout occurred after an electrical panel failed, causing a small isolated fire that was immediately extinguished Thursday night in Terminal 1, the airport said. That space serves several international airlines such as Air France and Lufthansa.
Among other disrupted flights, the incident forced a JFK-bound Air New Zealand plane to return to Auckland some eight hours into the journey, returning to its starting point some 16 hours into the journey.
Air New Zealand reported that “diverting to another US port would have meant the plane would be grounded for several days, affecting a number of other scheduled services and customers.”
The US Federal Aviation Administration declined to comment on the blackout. As of 1830 GMT on Friday, the JFK website showed that 120 inbound and outbound flights were delayed or cancelled. About half were international.
In all, about 3% of the airport’s air operations had been canceled as of Friday, according to the flight-tracking website Flightaware.com.
“We are sorry that there are no new updates at this time. Please continue to check the status of your flights with your airline,” JFK said in a tweet. He also explained that he was working to accommodate the affected flights using other airport terminals.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns JFK, was working with the terminal’s operator to restore flight operations as soon as possible, it previously announced. (Reporting by Chandni Shah and Shivani Tanna in Bengaluru. Editing by Jacqueline Wong, Chizu Nomiyama and Diane Craft)
Reuters
