How LaGuardia Airport Stoppage Impacts Sea-Tac Flights

SEATAC, WA - The Federal Aviation Administration on Friday morning halted flights at LaGuardia Airport in New York City, setting up the potential for nationwide flight delays and cancellations.

The good news for anyone flying out of Seattle: there are no direct flights from Sea-Tac to LaGuardia. As of about 8 a.m. Friday, there were no delays or cancellations for flights headed to the East Coast, according to the Port of Seattle.

There are more than 30 direct flights from Sea-Tac to John F. Kennedy Airport in New York. All of those flights were departing on time as of Friday morning.

If you need to check your flight today, here are two resources:

• Check arriving and departing flights on the Sea-Tac website
• Use Flight Aware to track delays and cancellations

The FAA, meanwhile, is advising travelers to check with their airline about delays and cancellations.

The FAA halted LaGuardia flights due to a shortage of air traffic controllers at two key facilities. An FAA spokesperson said there was a "slight increase in sick leave" at the two facilities.

"We’ve mitigated the impact by augmenting staffing, rerouting traffic and increasing spacing between aircraft when needed. The results have been minimal impacts to efficiency while maintaining consistent levels of safety in the national airspace system," the FAA statement read.

By around 7:30 a.m., the FAA said flights bound for LaGuardia were subject to a "ground delay program" while some arriving flights were delayed an average of an hour and 26 minutes, the FAA's website says.

Patch editor Noah Manskar contributed to this report

Patch file photo