SEATTLE (AP, KRON) – Seattle-Tacoma International Airport-based Alaska Airlines has canceled all passenger reservations into the southwestern Mexico resort town of Puerto Vallarta Saturday due to Hurricane Patricia.
Airline officials said Friday about 2,000 people were scheduled to fly into or out of Puerto Vallarta Saturday from California and Washington state. They say flight trackers may still show the flights as operating normally although the airline will not fly there Oct. 24 with passengers.
Alaska officials are offering flexible rebooking or refunds through Oct. 26 to those with flights to Puerto Vallarta, Ixtapa and Manzanillo in the next few days. If the airlines can fly empty planes into Puerto Vallarta they will try to fly people out.
The Puerto Vallarta airport was closed to flights Friday as the Category 5 storm’s center made landfall 55 miles west-northwest of the port city of Manzanillo.
Flights are being impacted at San Francisco International Airport. Thunderstorms associated with Hurricane Patricia are delaying flights, and that could continue through the weekend.
One round-trip flight to Puerto Vallarta was cancelled Friday morning at SFO. The flight board showed the next arrivals and departures to and from Mexico City will be on-time later Friday night.
For the most part, air travel at SFO is unaffected by Hurricane Patricia. But travelers are very aware about the storm.
One woman KRON spoke with has a friend on vacation in Puerto Vallarta right now. And she is very worried about her safety.
“Oh absolutely,” Tina McDonough said. “I could not imagine being down there and having something like this happen, especially when you are on family vacation.”
Tina’s friend is posting on Facebook and let people know that she is safe and has been evacuated from her hotel to a local school. But that was 7 hours ago, and she has not heard from her since.
Right now, the airlines flying to Puerto Vallarta Saturday are scheduled to go on-time. But that could change if the storm intensifies or does significant damage.
To check if your flight is delayed to or from SFO, click here -> http://www.flysfo.com/flight-info/flight-status