Cleaning Up Air Travel Messes

Comair Canceled Most Weekend Flights; US Airways Misplaced Bags

(CBS/AP)  Thousands of travelers spent their holiday weekend at airports waiting for flights that never took off, or looking for luggage in a sea of some ten-thousand lost bags, reports CBS News Correspondent Kelly Cobiella.

Regional airline Comair will need several days to resume a full schedule of flights that were grounded over the busy holiday weekend due to a computer failure, fallout from a winter storm.

Customers frustrated from days of delays and cancellations got some relief Sunday when the airline resumed a limited number of flights, a day after all 1,100 of its flights were canceled.

Meanwhile, US Airways started delivering luggage to passengers Sunday after suffering what its chief executive called an "operational meltdown."

US Airways ran two baggage-only flights from Philadelphia to its hub in Charlotte, N.C., as it continued to pare down its mountain of backed-up luggage, caused by severe weather Thursday and large numbers of baggage handlers, ramp workers and flight attendants calling in sick.

The airline, operating at near-normal levels, canceled 43 of about 1,200 flights systemwide on Sunday, down from 143 on Saturday and 176 on Friday.

As Cobiella reports, customer Mandy Frevele is a highly unsatisfied US Airways customer. After five days, she and her family have given up on the airline, opting to making the six hour drive home, without their bags.

"It's been just horrible, it's been a horrible experience," Frevele said. "I just never ever ever want to do this again."

Other airlines, such as Northwest and Continental, felt repurcussions of the snowstorm that hit the Midwest and South as they, too, cancelled many flights across the United States over the weekend.

Those driving along the Eastern Seaboard had problems of their own.

A winter storm left hundreds of travelers stranded on Interstate 95 in eastern North Carolina late Sunday, and contributed to hundreds of traffic accidents, at least two of them fatal.

Thousands of customers were without electricity in several eastern counties of the state, as well as in South Carolina.

The season's first snowstorm created headaches across New England on Monday, as airports closed temporarily and cars skidded off roadways.

Residents woke up to plow between 6 and more than 10 inches of the white stuff. The overnight storm also brought high winds and drifting.

Not even pro football players were immune: The New England Patriots were unable to fly home after their 23-to-7 victory over the New York Jets in New Jersey, reports CBS radio station WBZ-AM. So the players, coaches and staff boarded buses instead, finally arriving home at about 4 a.m. after a seven-hour ride.

Comair said 172 flights, about 15 percent of its normal schedule, were operating Sunday.

"We anticipate Comair will be able to operate on a full schedule by Wednesday," said Nick Miller, a spokesman for the Delta subsidiary based at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport. "That is our goal."

In a memo to employees, US Airways chief executive Bruce Lakefield thanked those who helped "our customers during the operational meltdown we experienced over the weekend." However, he criticized those who exacerbated problems by calling in sick.

"I have seen lots of excuses for why people took it upon themselves to call in sick, such as low morale, poor management, anger over pay cuts and frustration with labor negotiations," Lakefield said. "None of those excuses passes the test. We all have our jobs to do."

Union leaders representing workers in negotiations with the airline over further pay and benefits concessions denied any organized effort to slow operations, and said sickouts around the holidays are normal.

"There never used to be a coverage problem, because we had a 40 percent reserve population. We no longer have that" because of furloughs, separation offers, retirements, Teddy Xidas, president, Association of Flight Attendants Local 40, in Pittsburgh, told CBS Radio News Saturday.

"Organized or not, it was a sick-out," aviation consultant Michael Boyd said on CBS News' The Early Show. "US Airways management really needs to work harder with their employees to get them into the fold or that airline will not survive. Because when you take it out on the passengers over a Christmas holiday, they're going to remember that in the new year."

US Airways, which is operating under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, approved a new contract with its reservations and gate agents Thursday that slashed pay by 13 percent. The airline is seeking deals with flight attendants and machinists that it says it needs to drastically cut labor costs to survive beyond mid-January.

"This could be the nail in the coffin and management drove their employees in doing it," said Boyd. "If they don't get together, we won't have a U.S. Airways by this summer."

U.S. Department of Transportation spokesman Robert Johnson said Sunday that federal officials were monitoring the progress with US Airways and would investigate what happened at Philadelphia International.

Comair's computer system that manages flight assignments failed Friday night, overwhelmed by cancellations and delays caused by the winter storm that socked Ohio. Without that information, the airline was not able to determine whether crews had exceeded the federal limit for flying hours, The Cincinnati Enquirer reported.

The computer shutdown forced the airline to cancel all of its Saturday flights. Miller did not know how many customers were affected, but said the airline serves 30,000 travelers in 118 cities on a normal day.

Yeshwant Rajwade, 40, a software engineer for General Electric Aircraft Engines in Evendale, was scheduled to fly on US Airways from Cincinnati to New York for business on Thursday. That flight was canceled, as was a replacement flight after all the passengers had boarded.

The pilot said he couldn't complete the flight because he had been working 14 hours, the federally mandated limit for his shift, Rajwade said. He finally got a ticket on Delta at 5:30 a.m. Friday after waiting in line for hours.

"The system seems to be failing," Rajwade said of air travel.