Salt Lake City International Airport personnel braced for the icy fallout Friday as a major winter storm descended on the nation's Northeast, even as winter weather promised to also blanket Utah in white.
"They're saying there may be more than 3,000 flights are expected to be cancelled back East. All the Northeast airports are hunkering down ahead of this big storm coming in back there," said Airport Operations Director Dave Korzep. "There will be ramifications for us, too, here in Utah."
Those ramifications could translate into delays for passengers flying out of Salt Lake City to the Eastern Seaboard, as well as flights scheduled to arrive in Utah from the East.
As of 9:30 a.m. Friday, Delta Air Lines had reported five inbound and eight outbound flights, either originating or ending at airports in the East, had been cancelled due to weather, airport spokeswoman Barbara Gann confirmed.
"We advise passengers to check with their airlines before leaving for the airport, to check on the status of their flights," Korzep said.
Meanwhile, airport grounds crews were on full alert for the winter storm expected to hit northern Utah Friday afternoon, bringing up to 7 inches of snow to the Salt Lake Valley.
"We're ready for it. All our snow removal crews are on standby," Korzep said.
remims@sltrib.com