FAA lifts ground stop at NYC airport but delays flights due to smoke

(CNN) — The Federal Aviation Administration lifted a ground stop for flights bound for New York’s LaGuardia airport due to smoke but has delayed some flights on the ground.

Flights into Philadelphia are also being impacted because of the wildfire smoke, the FAA says. It reported the average delay is about a half-hour. A similar delay to the one at LaGuardia is in place in Newark.

“The FAA has slowed traffic to and from the New York City area airports due to reduced visibility from wildfire smoke,” the FAA told CNN in a statement. “The agency will adjust the volume of traffic to account for the rapidly changing conditions.”

As of 2:45 p.m. ET, airlines in the United States had canceled 120 flights and delayed another 1,928, according to data from tracking site FlightAware.

The Federal Aviation Administration says the extreme wildfire smoke haze lingering over the Northeast United States due to Canadian wildfires could delay flights through Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C.

U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg tweeted Wednesday that, “Smoke from Canada’s wildfires is affecting visibility in our airspace and leading to delays. The FAA is fully prepared to modify operations as needed.”