Juneau’s airport parking lots are packed as residents struggle to leave Seattle.
Airport Manager Patty Wahto said both long-term and short-term parking lots, which fit about 250 cars total, are at capacity. She said Juneau residents should avoid parking at the airport for the next day or two.
“It’s just over the top right now,” she said. “We’re seeing cars parked in spots where they really shouldn’t be parked, and it’s blocking people in.”
As of Tuesday afternoon, some long-term parking was still available at Mike’s Airport Express, across the street from the airport.
Alaska Airlines is still canceling flights to and from Juneau. Winter weather throughout the country has left planes and their crews stranded, the airline wrote in a press release Tuesday.
Wahto said it’s not local weather conditions causing delays. It’s cancellations in Seattle and Anchorage.
“When it hits down in Seattle, it can have a ripple down effect because planes are stranded elsewhere,” she said.
Juneau resident Geralyn Davis has experienced those ripple effects herself. She was set to fly to Anchorage at 7:30 a.m. Tuesday for a medical appointment. But when she checked her phone at midnight, the flight had been canceled.
Eventually, Alaska Airlines booked Davis for Thursday morning, but now she has to reschedule her doctor’s appointment and transportation from the airport.
“I’ve been flying up there for over four years now to have this done, and I’ve never had a cancellation,” she said. “It’s just a lot of pieces that it upsets when it gets canceled.”
Davis said she’d recommend Juneau residents reconsider their travel plans this week.
“I just wouldn’t fly if I didn’t have to right now,” she said.
