Heavy Snow Expected To Cause Flight Cancelations In Japan

Amid an ongoing once-a-decade cold snap, Japan is bracing for a severe winter storm that will see heavy snowfall, heavy rainfall, and strong winds enveloping the country. With temperatures expected to drop significantly to below-freezing levels and severely reduced visibility, several Japanese carriers have already canceled over 200 domestic flights across numerous airports.

Flight cancelations from Japan Airlines

One such carrier is Japan Airlines, as the flag carrier issued an important weather notice on its website to inform passengers that several domestic flights will be affected due to the winter storm. Japan Airlines highlighted that from January 25th to January 26th, more than 20 airports across Japan are likely to experience disrupted operations due to the forecasted bad weather.

Photo: Japan Airlines

These airports currently include:

With that many airports affected, the oneworld member has already canceled more than 100 flights for the next couple of days. And unfortunately, some domestic flights on January 24th have already been disrupted by the incoming weather, as the flights were either severely delayed, canceled, or had to turn back to their origin airport while snow piled at their destination.

Flight cancelations from All Nippon Airways

Another carrier having its flight services disrupted is All Nippon Airways (ANA), as the airline issued a similar weather notice on its website. From January 24th to January 25th, ANA emphasizes that various domestic flights will be delayed, canceled, diverted, or returned to their departure airports due to the severe snowstorm.

Similar to the flag carrier, ANA has already canceled many flights for today and tomorrow. The airline also had several flights returning back to their origin airports, with a similar pattern expected to emerge tomorrow. With the expectation that the weather disruptions will continue until January 27th, ANA will give out the latest cancelation updates by noon on January 25th.

Photo: All Nippon Airways

Thousands of affected passengers

Besides Japan Airlines and ANA, low-cost carriers Peach Aviation and Skymark Airlines have also been forced to cancel numerous flights for the next few days. The budget carriers were already impacted by the snowstorm when many of their flights were also made to return to their origin airports, as their destination airports suffered from heavy snow and strong winds that disrupted operations.

Unfortunately, the mass domestic flight cancelations carried out by so many Japanese carriers have accumulated to more than 200 and have affected at least 8,000 passengers across the country. As more flight services are expected to be disrupted by delays, passengers could likely find themselves stranded in many of the affected airports in the coming days.

Source: MarketScreener