Hurricane Patricia, the strongest hurricane ever recorded, may not have impacted Mexico as expected but there are still a lot of tourists stranded in the country because of it. Alaska Airlines has announced on their website that they will be resuming all of their five scheduled flights from Puerto Vallarta to bring passengers back to the United States.
Two of those flights landed at the Seattle Airport on Saturday. A total of 2,000 passengers were scheduled to fly in or out of Mexico’s Pacific coast. Alaska Airlines and other air carriers have announced that they will be waiving change fees and offering refunds to passengers who were scheduled to fly out from Puerto Vallarta, Ixtapa and Manzanillo in the next few days.
Seattle Tacoma International Airport based Alaska Airlines had announced on October 23, 2015 that they had cancelled all passenger reservations into Puerto Vallarta, the southwestern town in Mexico. Though flight trackers did say the flights were operating normally, they actually weren’t.
Puerta Vallarta’s Licenciado Gustavo Díaz Ordaz International Airport was closed for all flights on Friday as Hurricane Patricia hit landfall just 55 miles west of Manzanillo. But it was opened back on Saturday morning and is now fully operational now. As the hurricane seems to be subsided now after the horrendous Friday night, all the airports are hopefully going to be operational and the flights are going to be on time.
Other Airlines stepping up as well
American Airlines announced that they will be waiving change fees for flights scheduled on October 23 and 24 from Puerto Vallarta and Mazatlan. This provision has been made for all passengers who booked their tickets before October 22.
United Airlines has also relaxed their change fees for flights leaving from five Mexican airports, including Manzanillo, Puerto Vallarta, Durango, Guadalajara, Manzanillo, Puerto Vallarta and San Luis Potosi between October 23 and 25
Looking Back at Patricia
On October 23, Hurricane Patricia became the most powerful tropical cyclone to ever hit the Western Hemisphere. Formed in the eastern Pacific, the Patricia intensified rapidly and became a Category 5 Hurricane. Luckily, the storm rapidly weakened because of the rugged terrain of Mexico.
Even though Hurricane Patricia has weakened, there are still fears of flooding and mudslides in the Mexican mountains. Though the government officials are constantly reminding people that they are on top of the entire situation and they will make sure the tourism gets back to normal soon.
Though, Hurricane Patricia has been downgraded to a tropical depression, but fears of mudslides, flooding remain in Mexican mountains. As the wind is moving up, Hurricane Patricia is now moving towards Texas and the leftovers of Patricia are causing a major flood situation in Texas
The storm made landfall on a sparsely populated stretch of Mexico’s western coast with winds of 165 miles per hour, avoiding direct hits on the cities of Puerto Vallarta and Manzanillo. Though all the major cities are under flood watch.
About 100 flights have been cancelled at the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. But officials are hopeful that everything will get back to normal by the end of this week.
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