Logan International Airport braces for expected blizzard

By Katie Johnston, Globe Staff

Logan International Airport was bustling Friday morning with people relieved to be getting in, and out, before the snow hits.

Lori Jacobson of Mashpee was among the lucky ones able to rebook her Saturday trip to San Juan, Puerto Rico, to Friday at 1 p.m., one of the last flights scheduled to leave the airport before the airlines shut down operations until Saturday afternoon.

Jacobson, an emergency room nurse at Cape Cod Hospital, was headed for a Caribbean cruise with her 17-year-old daughter and a few coworkers. Her sister-in-law drove them into the airport and was planning to stay at Jacobson’s house to watch the her dogs.

“We’re deserting everybody: dogs, patients,” Jacobson said with a laugh, noting that the temperature in the Caribbean was in the 80s. “I’m going to put a cold cocktail in my hands.”

Snow removal crews were gearing up to clear the airfield and the roadways, said Matthew Brelis, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Port Authority, which runs Logan.

The last Logan Express buses will arrive at the airport at 3 p.m. and leave at 4 p.m., he said, but the public areas and some concessions will remain open in the terminals.

“We’re going to keep two runways as long as we can then we go down to one runway,” he said. “While snow is being removed from the one active runway, planes need to go into a holding pattern. That doesn’t mean we’re closed, but if they’re low on fuel they might get diverted.”