Hurricane Harvey hit south of Houston last night, and the storm has stalled completely, dumping possibly 20-30" of rain in the Houston area over the next 4-5 days. It's pretty rare for a storm to make landfall then just stop.

What kind of delays is this causing for IAH? Will it shut the airport down? I was listening to a report that stated Houston is flood prone. What was the storm that flooded some NY airports? Also, I hope this discussion doesn't get moved to a non Civil Aviation forum. It is a very valid discussion for this area and moving it really isn't appropriate.

We've had a few diversions from IAH here at MSY, including a UA 764 from LIM.

70% of flights at IAH have been cancelled today with another 69% cancelled for tomorrow. United's share out of that is roughly 275 flights on each day. No doubt this is going to hurt UA's bottom line this quarter. However, as critical as I am of UA, I am sure they have the ability and a viable plan to recover very quickly and very efficiently.

This is where having multiple large hubs in other parts of the country will really come into play. This however, is the exact scenario that hampers JetBlue for what seems like eternity, having two hubs on the North East coast. Not many options when a storm takes out B6's operations at their two main airports in BOS and JFK

Indy wrote:

What kind of delays is this causing for IAH? Will it shut the airport down? I was listening to a report that stated Houston is flood prone. What was the storm that flooded some NY airports? Also, I hope this discussion doesn't get moved to a non Civil Aviation forum. It is a very valid discussion for this area and moving it really isn't appropriate.

There is also a discussion going on in Travel, Polls and Preferences on the travel implications, refer to

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=1371955

As long as this thread is aviation related I don't see a need for it to be moved to another forum

One of my UA agent friends posted a picture of the FIDS at IAH on Facebook this morning. She said all but 6 flights that were displayed were cancelled.

This is only Saturday night and already on Monday, 23% of IAH's operations are showing as cancelled.

Just talked to a friend in the Montrose area of Houston and he said water is standing in the streets at tire level. Even if IAH/HOU stay open, getting employees to work will be extremely difficult.

Italianflyer wrote:

Just talked to a friend in the Montrose area of Houston and he said water is standing in the streets at tire level. Even if IAH/HOU stay open, getting employees to work will be extremely difficult.

Fellow Houstonian and I think that will be the biggest problem. I would also suspect that this could be a bigger issue at HOU as you have to go through low lying neighborhood streets to get there.

Hope everyone is staying safe in Houston....it looks a bit damp out there..

http://www.earthcam.net/projects/housto ... stream.php

United1 wrote:

Hope everyone is staying safe in Houston....it looks a bit damp out there..

http://www.earthcam.net/projects/housto ... stream.php

Indeed... Driving home from IAH tonight was quite unnerving to say the least... and sounds even worse now.. not to mention the emergency alerts every 10 min on phone/Tv

Although not officially closed, looks like accessing any of the terminals at IAH is close to impossible as Will Clayton is now shut down according to a friend who is now stuck there.

Hobby Airport is officially closed per City of Houston. Standing water on runways. No inbound/outbound flights allowed at this time.

BA have cancelled sundays morning flight, but the afternoon departure BA0197 is still a go'er.
As said above, getting the employees to and from work will be key to operations, things will grind to a halt if you can't get new staff up in the tower for the start of their shift.

According to Flightradar24 NH174, BR52 (Major Delay) and KE29 are still currently inbound as is NZ28. Have to wonder given the possible weather conditions at the times of their arrivls as to where they might divert, I am thinking DFW. At the moment the skies around IAH are empty of departing and or arriving flights.

NZ delayed then cancelled Saturday, operating Sunday though due after 1300 currently.

Before I clocked out, all WN departures and arrivals before 1030a were cancelled in addition to the large numbers of already cancelled flights into and out of HOU.

-- Mikey

How are the airports fairing in terms of flooding, Houston got hammered last night....
Went on weather.com and there were 85 different warnings out for IAH, I have never seen something like that before...

mikelive wrote:

Before I clocked out, all WN departures and arrivals before 1030a were cancelled in addition to the large numbers of already cancelled flights into and out of HOU.

-- Mikey

HOU is now completely closed. From the FAA:

Due to WEATHER / HURRICANE HARVEY, the Houston William P Hobby Airport (HOU) was closed as of Aug 27 at 02:55 AM CDT. The date/time when the airport is expected to reopen is Aug 30 at 08:00 AM CDT.

IAH is not allowing flights to depart their origin until at or after 9:00 am CT. That had been 7:00am CT and was extended, so may extend further, if IAH even stays open.

In the last two days, IAH has gotten about 16" of rain, HOU about 19". Most of that rain came in the last 24 hours. Those totals could double

mikelive wrote:

Before I clocked out, all WN departures and arrivals before 1030a were cancelled in addition to the large numbers of already cancelled flights into and out of HOU.

-- Mikey

FAA is also reporting other area Houston airports as closed, see this list

http://www.airport-houston.com/FAA.php

smokeybandit wrote:

In the last two days, IAH has gotten about 16" of rain, HOU about 19". Most of that rain came in the last 24 hours. Those totals could double

Unfortunately, weather.com is reporting the worst is yet to come. Houston is forecast to get up to 24 more inches of rain between now and Thursday,

Tornado watch in effect until 1400 hours with steady wind speeds in the 20's to 30 MPH range.

The Rice University (Houston) football team played a game in Australia last night. They were flying back to LAX today and will basically be stranded there for who knows how long

jumbojet wrote:

70% of flights at IAH have been cancelled today with another 69% cancelled for tomorrow. United's share out of that is roughly 275 flights on each day. No doubt this is going to hurt UA's bottom line this quarter. However, as critical as I am of UA, I am sure they have the ability and a viable plan to recover very quickly and very efficiently.

This is where having multiple large hubs in other parts of the country will really come into play. This however, is the exact scenario that hampers JetBlue for what seems like eternity, having two hubs on the North East coast. Not many options when a storm takes out B6's operations at their two main airports in BOS and JFK

Right now UA is only running hub-hub flights and some international flights. On yesterday most passengers who would have connected at IAH were rerouted through other hubs if other hubs offer flights to their final destination. Flights going into IAH from all the hubs were primarily empty, I'm assuming the customers on those flights were local passengers trying to get home. However flights coming out of IAH were the complete opposite they were completely full there were quite a few flights were we had over 50-70 revenue passengers on the revenue standby list. It seemed as though customers were willing to fly to any UA hub to get out of IAH and then try to figure out how to get to their final destination. And I agree having more than one hub really does help an airline out in this situation because other hubs can absorb part of the load and get passengers to their final destination.

I also know that AA helped UA out as well UA was able to reroute quite a few passengers to DFW from our other hubs. Passengers whose final destination was either somewhere in Mexico or Central America because as we know IAH is UA main gateway to these destination. But with those flights being cancel out of IAH, AA at DFW was able to help us out and accommodate some of our passengers. I know those passenger trying to get home or going on vacation were appreciative that AA was able to accommodate them out of DFW. In the day and age were it seems as if airlines are always at war with each other it nice to see other airlines at other hubs help out under these unprecedented circumstances that Houston is facing.

Overall the next week or so is going to be challenging for UA and you are correct Harvey will cost UA millions of dollars. However Oscars message to employees is first and foremost safety. Many of our employees in the Houston area can't even get to work because the road are flooded or their community is flooded. So Oscar is stressing safety first for out IAH based ground employees and flight crews and secondly employees at all the other hubs and line stations used every tool at your disposal to accommodate our customers and get them to their final destination.

jumbojet wrote:

smokeybandit wrote:

In the last two days, IAH has gotten about 16" of rain, HOU about 19". Most of that rain came in the last 24 hours. Those totals could double

Unfortunately, weather.com is reporting the worst is yet to come. Houston is forecast to get up to 24 more inches of rain between now and Thursday,

Tornado watch in effect until 1400 hours with steady wind speeds in the 20's to 30 MPH range.

Did a Google Earth look at Lake Houston to the East of the airport, some really wonderful homes on the lake shoreline, those people must be sh*ting bricks
at the prospect of another 24 inches of rain.

So far this morning at IAH, one arrival (KE29 from ICN) and only four departures: 3 AA and 1 DL. EVA52 from TPE appears to be inbound. Nothing else in the vicinity right now.

Not that it matters at all compared to the immediate threat to public safety, but yeah, this is going to be a huge operational mess for both Houston airports - and both Houston hub carriers. It will take days for air travel operations in the area to recover from this.

jayunited wrote:

I also know that AA helped UA out as well UA was able to reroute quite a few passengers to DFW from our other hubs. Passengers whose final destination was either somewhere in Mexico or Central America because as we know IAH is UA main gateway to these destination. But with those flights being cancel out of IAH, AA at DFW was able to help us out and accommodate some of our passengers. I know those passenger trying to get home or going on vacation were appreciative that AA was able to accommodate them out of DFW. In the day and age were it seems as if airlines are always at war with each other it nice to see other airlines at other hubs help out under these unprecedented circumstances that Houston is facing.

As most people working airport ops for any major airline will tell you, competition pretty much stops at the ticket counter.

NH154 got to the Texas border and decided to divert to ORD.

https://flightaware.com/live/flight/ANA174

DL hasn't yet cancelled the whole day at IAH, even the RON flights. Seems strange.

WWads wrote:

DL hasn't yet cancelled the whole day at IAH, even the RON flights. Seems strange.

It looks like DL RON'ed at least two planes overnight last night at IAH. 1933 (ATL) and 3529 (SLC) both departed IAH within the past hour.

Some UA inbound long-haul flight are diverting.
UA252 HNL-IAH diverting to LAX. https://flightaware.com/live/flight/UAL252
UA6 NRT-IAH diverting to SFO. https://flightaware.com/live/flight/UAL6
UA160 AMS-IAH diverting to ORD. https://flightaware.com/live/flight/UAL160
UA855 LIM-IAH diverting to IAD. https://flightaware.com/live/flight/UAL855
UA818 EZE-IAH diverting to IAD. https://flightaware.com/live/flight/UAL818
UA104 GRU-IAH diverting to IAD https://flightaware.com/live/flight/UAL104

There are reports of flood waters invading second floors of houses near Hobby airport..

KHOU (Hobby) is closed until Wednesday 8 AM CDT.

IAH closed until noon on the 28th.

I take it UA and SWA has moved their assets with wings out of there? There are no jets at the gates? Employees told to say home?

]

CapitalAvGeek wrote:

Some UA inbound long-haul flight are diverting.
UA252 HNL-IAH diverting to LAX. https://flightaware.com/live/flight/UAL252
UA6 NRT-IAH diverting to SFO. https://flightaware.com/live/flight/UAL6
UA160 AMS-IAH diverting to ORD. https://flightaware.com/live/flight/UAL160
UA855 LIM-IAH diverting to IAD. https://flightaware.com/live/flight/UAL855
UA818 EZE-IAH diverting to IAD. https://flightaware.com/live/flight/UAL818
UA104 GRU-IAH diverting to IAD https://flightaware.com/live/flight/UAL104

Takes a lot of extra fuel to get from IAH to IAD. That must have been planned as a diversion airport when dispatched from South America. I hoped they warned people before getting on the plane that they could be diverting to Washington DC. Travel waivers would probably have covered rescheduling.

]

tp1040 wrote:

KHOU (Hobby) is closed until Wednesday 8 AM CDT.

Wow. Does anyone have photos of Hobby? Flooding must be bad for them to have already decided to stay closed until Wednesday.

william wrote:

I take it UA and SWA has moved their assets with wings out of there? There are no jets at the gates? Employees told to say home?

DL has gotten all but one aircraft out at this point. The remaining is a delayed IAH-ATL flight that should go any time now. With HOU potentially about to be underwater, I doubt that any airline has left aircraft there.

If this cam is live, UA still has a lot of mainline aircraft parked at IAH:

http://www.earthcam.net/projects/housto ... stream.php

Update: Looks like DL just cancelled that IAH-ATL flight. Guess it's going to RON.

IAH field doesn't have much flooding issues, so aircraft can stay safely. UA employees were told to stay home today.

I can't imagine IAH or HOU opening anytime soon. Unfortunately it seems Harvey will be hanging around the area for days to come. The center may drift slightly offshore and then come back in. The NHC has this storm moving around the same general area for 3 or 4 more days with it finally out of the area on day 5. The pics that I'm seeing online are shocking and amazing. I can't believe IAH was open this long. I would think that keeping people coming to work was unnecessarily putting them at great risk. I hope those in charge are sensible enough to keep the facility closed until workers can safely return to work.

Listening to IAH ATC. They're still allowing departures, but only arrivals permitted are military and humanitarian.

SiouxFlyer wrote:

IAH closed until noon on the 28th.

Can someone ring BA and tell them pls, BA197 departed LHR 14:54 on route.Guess a divert to AUS is in order.

WWads wrote:

DL hasn't yet cancelled the whole day at IAH, even the RON flights. Seems strange.

One thing that might have helped was DL provided rooms at airport hotels for their staff (who were supposed to work this weekend) and their families so that the employees could still get to work.

Indy wrote:

I can't imagine IAH or HOU opening anytime soon..

I concur. My expectation in that HOU and IAH will be closed for weeks. When they do open, priority will be for medical evacuations outgoing, and aid/military inbound. Things in Houston are going to get very ugly.

This is an amazing live video stream out of Houston. It shows people on boats gong up and down what looks to be a pretty big street. Guess they are rescuing people.

https://www.facebook.com/Fox59News/vide ... =3&theater

If the link doesn't work right let me know.

Southwest has 15 aircraft on the ground at HOU according to FR24

MaxTrimm wrote:

Southwest has 15 aircraft on the ground at HOU according to FR24

They might be regretting that one big time. Wonder if there's higher ground they can move them to.

With how tight WN's ops are, having 15 aircraft parked could cause problems across the system.

What is happening to Houston extends far beyond Houston and will take years and billions of dollars for life in that enormous city and region to return to normal.

I wouldn't be surprised if this becomes the most costly natural disaster in US and perhaps world history.

It is absolutely a given that UA and WN will be impacted to the tune of hundreds of millions in dollars in lost revenue but that will be a drop in the bucket in cost to other industries
.

From HOU twitter

"The arrivals section of HOU is closed due to high water. Terminals are accessible via the departures area"

"Airfield is closed due to standing water on runways. No inbound/outbound flights. Please check flight status before coming to HOU"

"Though the roads are flooded, our ecopark lot is still safe and passengers' cars are not flooding. We will continue to monitor."

These tweets are from 3-9 hours ago, so the situation is presumably much worse now...

My mom and I saw a plane fly over our house in Atascocita last night at midnight. She is a UA gate agent and was told to not go to work. It's not like she could get there anyway; the intersections into our neighborhood are flooded, and Will Clayton @ 59/69 is under 7 feet of water.