Hurricane Dorian is causing chaos to flights, with roughly 400 services cancelled on Saturday and for Sunday according to CNN. However, quoting a statement from the website FlightAware, "these numbers [are expected] to increase in the upcoming days, especially at airports in the region where Dorian is to make landfall,". Here's what's going on right now...

Hurricane status and location

As of Saturday night, the storm has been slowly making its way north, closer to the Bahamas and the Florida panhandle. Meanwhile, according to the National Hurricane Center, a hurricane warning remains in effect for the northwestern Bahamas. Furthermore, a portion of the Florida east coast is under a tropical storm watch.

Airport closures and flight cancellations

The only American airport closures to be announced are Orlando International Airport (MCO) and Daytona Beach International Airport (DAB). In fact, with the storm progressing north from the Bahamas, MCO is making the decision to cease operations at 2am local time on Monday. DAB will close after the last flight departs on Sunday night.

According to the MCO, the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority executive leadership and emergency management leaders came to this decision after meeting with numerous groups including airline officials, the Federal Aviation Administration, Transportation Security Administration, Air Traffic Control Tower representatives and more.

Obviously this means all flights arriving and departing from that point on will be canceled if the closure goes ahead as planned.

On Friday, Grand Bahama International Airport (FPO) in Freeport (the Bahamas) closed. Tentatively, it will reopen on Tuesday subject to "prevailing conditions".

Fort Lauderdale International Airport (FLL) and Miami International Airport (MIA) both made statements that they are monitoring the storm, advising the public to check their websites and social media for updates.

Airline reactions and preparations

We're closely monitoring #HurricaneDorian headed into the weekend. If you have travel plans in the next several days to or from a potentially affected area, be sure to check https://t.co/aP7ECAbjhL for the latest. pic.twitter.com/VaSr4waSrz

— Southwest Airlines (@SouthwestAir) August 30, 2019

As a result of the storm, airlines have extended their change-fee waivers for flights to/from/through affected cities and are advising their guests to monitor their respective websites and social media. Delta and Southwest are even making special allowances for pets. Here is a list of airlines with links to their travel advisories and change policies.

Stay up to date

Meanwhile, it is advised that anyone having travel plans to, from and through the projected path of the storm stay up to date through social media with their respective airlines as the situation continues to develop.

With the storm moving at its slow pace, those in and close to its path are sitting in suspense:

“This is becoming a long-duration nail-biter for folks along the southeastern United States,” -David Bibo, FEMA. (New York Times)

Finally, as the New York Times also points out, the slow pace of the storm is giving people more time to prepare for a possible hit.