A major winter storm affecting the East Coast caused Wilmington International Airport to delay or cancel most of ILM’s flights Friday.
 
The National Weather Service issued a Winter Weather Advisory for much of the East Coast ahead of the storm’s approach. The National Weather Service said it is a major winter storm expected to impact a large part of the East Coast from Friday into the weekend. The Weather Channel officially named the winter storm Jonas.
 
Although the Port City saw only rain Friday, two feet of snow is expected to accumulate in areas north of Wilmington, including the Baltimore and Washington, D.C., metropolitan areas.
 
As of 2 p.m.Friday, all Delta Air Lines and American Airlines flight arrivals at ILM were canceled for the afternoon, with the exception of three arrivals from Atlanta and one from LaGuardia Airport.
 
All afternoon flight departures from ILM, except departures to Atlanta and one departure for LaGuardia, were canceled as well.
 
Jonas has caused the national airline system to become increasingly jumbled and hectic. All of the flight cancellations and delays nationally have affected flights going to and coming from ILM.

Nationally, 5,100 flights were delayed and 3,190 canceled by early Friday afternoon, according to the website Flight Aware.

ILM operations director Gary Broughton said the airport shouldn’t be too affected in the days following the departure of the storm. Rebooking could affect passengers as canceled flights might make it more difficult to get seats on later flights.
 
He encouraged passengers to call their airlines and check their flight statuses before heading to the airport. The ILM website has updates as well.