Tuesday, December 28, 2010

The weather spoils holiday travel in US

Hundreds of people were stuck Monday morning at the three major New York City-area airports. Airlines announced more than 1,000 cancelled flights for Monday. Once the airports reopen, passengers will have a hard time finding open seats on later flights. Seats are already scarce because of the busy holiday season, and airlines are operating fewer flights than they did before the recession.  Airlines move planes away from the path of big storms to prevent them from being stranded. Now the airlines have to get those planes back to the Northeast before they can fly stranded passengers home. They may also have to ferry pilots and flight attendants into the affected areas.

By midmorning, American cancelled 236 flights for Monday and sister carrier American Eagle scratched another 175. Delta Air Lines cancelled 700 flights, US Airways cancelled 550 including regional flights, and Southwest dropped 188. United and Continental were updating their figures but had already announced nearly 300 cancellations.

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