Cruising this weekend out of Fort Lauderdale?

[tonyfsu21]

Chances = slim. A local posted this on social media. FLL is a lake.

[Zacharius]

What's the status of the actual runways and commercial aprons? I don't see the airport being fully operational at 5am tomorrow like they say, but if at least one runway, the terminal area, and the taxiways in between those two are clear, I could see them being able to get at least some flights in. 

[tonyfsu21]

55 minutes ago, Zacharius said:

What's the status of the actual runways and commercial aprons? I don't see the airport being fully operational at 5am tomorrow like they say, but if at least one runway, the terminal area, and the taxiways in between those two are clear, I could see them being able to get at least some flights in. 

As a local for 47 years I say 0% chance. As I type this, the rain is back in full force and the high tide could elevate the water 3’ above my sea wall like last night because we just haven’t had the time for the flood waters to subside. I would say anyone considering FLL should make a flight change right away to either MIA, WPB or even Orlando but do not try to gamble on FLL tomorrow. 

[Ryan79]

Stay safe and dry @tonyfsu21! This is just insane to watch. I cannot imagine experiencing it first hand.

[JasonOasis]

As of right now for tomorrow Friday April 14th FLL is currently showing 128 inbound cancellations for all airlines, expect this number to grow. 

The last update received from the FAA by the airline I work for still shows the  airport reopening at 5am tomorrow morning and as it stands right now the airline that I work for is not showing a ton a cancellations, however I would say don't be deceived. 

On a normal day depending on the day of the week FLL sees anywhere between 550-620 daily arrivals from commercial passenger aircraft.  There are a lot of airline employees needed to run an operation like that.  With the amount of flooding Fort Lauderdale and surrounding communities experienced there are going to be a lot of employees (no matter the airline) that simply will not be able to make in to work on tomorrow for a variety of reasons.  The people who make the decisions to cancel in advance or not cancel in advance most if not all of them work in the operation center that each airline has. And most operation centers are located within or near an airlines World Headquarters meaning the decision makers they are divorced from the actual operation that happens on the ground at the airport. Looking at the devastation that happened in Fort Lauderdale I know tomorrow is going to be a total mess at FLL.  Even though as of right now the FAA still says the airport will reopen at 5 am there will be at least 150 additional cancellations at FLL if not more because without the ground staff in place to work arriving and departing flights it becomes difficult if not impossible for airlines to run their schedule.  There will be a lot of last minute cancellations into FLL tomorrow once individual airlines station managers start looking at their call out list and realize the number of employees calling out, who aren't even able to get to work (assuming the station manager can get to work) and starts relaying that information to each individual airlines operation center the cancellations and those dreaded rolling delays are going to mount.

Even if your flight is still showing on-time especially if your are scheduled to arrive at FLL before 12 or 1pm, I would for sure be calling the airline looking to rebook and fly into Miami, West Palm Beach, Melbourne, or even Orlando.  What you want to try and avoid is a last minute cancellation where you are scrambling for options especially if you have a cruise leaving either tomorrow or Saturday. It is always better to be proactive than reactive and the time to be proactive is now because I can promise you the chances of FLL being back to anything close to normal tomorrow is slim to none.

Also to those of you who have a cruise on Sunday and are planning to fly out into FLL on Saturday I would NOT let my guard down.  When you have an airport like FLL shutdown for over 24 hours it take time for things to get back to 100% normal. Don't think you are in the clear simply because your flight isn't until Saturday, I would have a plan B ready to go, ready to execute to get to the pier on-time for Sunday just in case things go awry on Saturday. There probably won't be as many cancellations on Saturday as there will be tomorrow but I would be shocked if things were 100% normal come Saturday.

[twangster]

With all that water perhaps the ship could port right at the airport.  Would that be convenient?

 

[JasonOasis]

Just to provide an update the FAA delayed FLL's reopening until 9am this morning which is less than an hour from now. 

However the longest runway 10L/28R remains closed out of service, this leave just one runway 10R/28L which is shorter than 10L/28R as the only runway in operation for both departing and arriving flights.  For now they don't expect to have both runways in operation at all today there has been no word on if the second runway will be open for operations tomorrow. 

 

[Seafarer]

1 hour ago, JasonOasis said:

Just to provide an update the FAA delayed FLL's reopening until 9am this morning which is less than an hour from now. 

However the longest runway 10L/28R remains closed out of service, this leave just one runway 10R/28L which is shorter than 10L/28R as the only runway in operation for both departing and arriving flights.  For now they don't expect to have both runways in operation at all today there has been no word on if the second runway will be open for operations tomorrow. 

 

Real-time FLL flight operations link

https://flightaware.com/live/airport/KFLL