A powerful storm that hit the Bay Area wreaked havoc on airport travel Wednesday, and not just in San Francisco.
The “atmospheric river” that dumped 2.23 inches of rain on San Francisco in a 24-hour period through noon, as well as more than 1 1/2 inches in several East Bay cities, caused the cancellation of 176 flights into and out of San Francisco International Airport by 7 p.m..
That airport generally bears the brunt of delays when big storms hit, but the most recent one also caused trouble at Oakland International Airport.
Eleven scheduled flights into and out of Oakland were cancelled, spokeswoman Keonnis Taylor sad.
Most of the flights were short commuter flights up and down the West Coast, but not all of them. At least one flight to Dallas, a major transfer hub, were cancelled at Oakland and San Francisco.
At San Francisco, another 482 of about 1,250 flights were delayed an average of 90 minutes, airport spokesman Maria Buyco said. A ground-delay program at SFO was scheduled to last until midnight, with some flights seeing delays of up to 258 minutes as of 7 p.m.
In Oakland, Southwest Airlines delayed all flights to Los Angeles International Airport because of a ground delay program at LAX. An earlier ground-delay program in San Francisco also caused three flights scheduled to land in San Francisco to touch down in Oakland.
The ground delay in Los Angeles affected traffic at Norman Y. Mineta San Jose International Airport. Six flights there were cancelled, all because of the issues at LAX, spokeswoman Rosemary Barnes said.
Winds were gusting up to 30 mph at the airport early Wednesday and had subsided only minimally by the afternoon, she said.
“That’s pretty significant for us,” Barnes said.
San Jose proved to be one of the few cities where only a light rain fell. The city totaled .25 inches in a 24-hour period ending at 6 p.m..
Customers were urged to call their airlines and check their airport web sites to check on the status of their flights.
Staff writer George Kelly contributed to this report.