BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — The excitement of March Madness is landing in Buffalo, along with increased flight delays. Winter weather has slowed down flights and impacted fans traveling to WNY, people trying to get home and teams traveling for the tournament.
“We all got emails that basically said, ‘Sorry, your flight’s been canceled due to the weather,’” said Nicole Barber, a traveler at the Buffalo Niagara International Airport.
“It’s just been a weird weather trend of a winter for us across the whole country, honestly, and that definitely impacted travel and flights being able to get in and out,” said Tyler Buffington, a travel agent with AAA.
I was supposed to get here about noon, so I think we’re much closer to about six o’clock now at this point, so it’s been a long day,” said Rick Worley, who was traveling from Greenville, South Carolina.
“It was a 12-hour day for me,” said Barber.
“Running out of our room, kept seeing delay, delay, delay and then finally we get ready to board our plane there, and we see that we have about five minutes to connect our flights from North Carolina to Buffalo, so we made it by the skin of our teeth,” said travelers Patrick Brown and Taylor Danni.
Although delays hit many travelers, some lucked out.
“My travel day was pretty easy, no interruptions even after the past two days of all the storms,” said Michael Otto, traveling from Daytona to Buffalo.
“It was simple,” said Drew Deener, traveling from Louisville to Buffalo. “I mean, you hear nightmare stories about the airport, but it was—we came from Louisville, transferred in D.C., and it was absolutely no problem at all.”
As the NCAA tournament brings in fans from all over, many are excited to experience all that Buffalo has to offer.
“It’ll bring new people to the city who haven’t been here before,” said Otto.
“There’s nothing like the NCAA tournament,” Deener added. “We would go to anywhere to go, we would go to the moon if we could get a win in the tournaments.
“Eric Wood being one of Louisville’s own, you know, he’s always talking about this place, and there’s randomly a lot of Bills fans in Louisville I know, and you don’t wonder if they’re Bills fans, they let you know, so, yeah, I think for a lot of us it’s our first time being up here.”
“I mean, who doesn’t like Buffalo wings? We gotta see what all the hype’s about, we got a couple days to figure that out,” said Deener.
The increased tourism will boost local businesses across the Queen City.
“I’m sure there will be a mass influx of people here for the NCAA tournament,” said Buffington. “Just enjoy yourselves, we have a lot of, you know, we’re a well-kept secret in Buffalo.”
“I love when things bring people into the city, no matter what it is,” said Brown. “Besides the basics of stimulating the economy a little bit, it’s just showing people what we really are in Buffalo.”
TSA is urging travelers to plan for extra time, arrive at the airport about two or three hours before boarding and frequently check for flight updates.
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Angelica Gallagher is a Lancaster native who joined the News 4 team in 2025. See more of her work here.
Gabriella Baiano has been a digital producer with WIVB since November 2025. View more of her work here.
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