The devastation caused by Hurricane Harvey in Houston, Texas, has caused a significant humanitarian crisis with flooding across most of the city. Houston 's George Bush Intercontinental Airport will remain closed until Thursday, August 31 and today some 1120 flights have been cancelled to add to the 1007 cancelled yesterday. Tomorrow, a further 1397 flights will be cancelled. As the airport is a United hub, the airline has been most affected by the crisis but Spirit Airlines and Southwest Airlines are also significantly exposed to Houston. In total so far, there have been 8,703 commercial flights cancelled to/from Houston since last Friday.
Houston Bush Intercontinental and Houston Hobby airports are focused on supporting relief efforts and continue to be closed to commercial traffic. Flightaware suggests that commercial flights could resume by tomorrow at noon since the roads are improving in Houston as the flooding recedes. “The main arteries to/from the airports are now passable, allowing airline and airport staff access. We expect limited operations as the airports re-open and the airlines mobilize airplanes and crews,” says FlightAware.
The storm damage could well spiral to $2bn by some estimates for insurance companies. Cowen and Company estimates that United could see at least a $265 million-plus impact as a result of the storm, assuming the airports do reopen tomorrow. Southwest & Spirit will also be impacted but to a lesser degree, says Cowen, adding that “recovery to normal operations will be important but a timeline has yet to be defined given continued rainfall.”
Airlink launched a mission to assist humanitarian efforts on the ground as soon as the hurricane hit. The charity has partnered with United Airlines to raise much-needed funds for this response and to help prepare for others like it. Your help is needed to bring relief to those impacted.
While the exact level of destruction is still being determined, Airlink already knows that people living in the impacted communities need help recovering from catastrophic flooding and wind damage.
So far, Airlink has helped partner organizations All Hands Volunteers and Heart to Heart International deploy personnel into the region. More help will be needed and responding organizations will be asking Airlink to get their aid workers to the most affected areas as quickly as possible.
As an added bonus, United Mileage Plus members can receive frequent flyer miles in exchange for their donations to Airlink.
• Donate $50-$99 – Earn 250 bonus miles
• Donate $100-$249 – Earn 500 bonus miles
• Donate $250 or more – Earn 1,000 bonus miles