Expected East Coast blizzard cancels Denver flights

Photo: Frontier plane in NYC (AP Photo)
A crewmember de-ices a Frontier Airlines plane at LaGuardia Airport in New York on Jan. 26, 2015.

Flights out of Denver to east coast destinations have been canceled as the northeast United States prepares for what’s expected to be a history-making blizzard.

At least 30 flights from Denver International Airport have been canceled to cities including New York, Boston and Philadelphia. DIA spokesman Heath Montgomery says by acting before the storm hit, airlines can avoid making a tough travel situation worse.

"What it does is it frees up that plane to be able to travel to other destinations," Montgomery said. "So we won’t likely see a large domino effect like we would if the airlines waited until the last minute."

Montgomery said the full effects of the storm are not clear yet.

"We think that the airlines will pay very close attention to the weather patterns and the forecast and they’ll make decisions as they go," Montgomery said. "It really will be a moving target."

The storm is expected to drop more than two feet of snow on New York City by Tuesday morning, NPR reports:

Blizzard warnings have been issued all the way from the New Jersey shore to coastal New England from this afternoon through late Tuesday.

The National Weather Service said New York could get as much as 2 feet of snow; Boston and Providence, R.I., could get up to 2.5 feet. Wind gusts of up to 50 mph are expected inland, and some gusts could reach 75 mph on the Northeastern coast.