Raleigh-Durham International Airport currently ranks 15th in the U.S. for the number of flight cancellations in the past 30 days.
Hurricane Irene, which made landfall on the coast of North Carolina on the August 27, is the main cause of the new ranking.
According to Triangle Business Journal, 313 arrivals and 321 departures were cancelled at RDU between the August 9 and September 8. As expected, most of those cancellations occurred during the weekend of August 27.
RDU Media Communications Manager Mindy Hamlin confirmed that 300 flights were cancelled during that weekend alone.
"I want to clarify that the airlines are responsible for making the decision of cancelling flights," she said. "Some airlines did choose to cancel during that weekend, but others continued normal operations."
Despite the weather, the airport stayed open and didn’t suffer any damage.
"RDU Airport Authority is responsible for making sure the airport is kept up and running," Hamlin said. "We can’t control the weather, so this new ranking is an anomaly."
The cancellation of flights delayed many students from getting back to Duke on time for the start of classes.
Jakob Blomqvist, a Swedish international student, first had his flight cancelled to New York. Once he got to New York two days later, he had to stay overnight because almost all flights to RDU were cancelled. He finally arrived at Duke on Wednesday night, three days after the first day of classes.
"It was a total nightmare," he said. "And it really didn’t make the start of classes easy either, given that I had to play catch-up before I even started!"
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