Repaired Runway Reopens at SFO Ahead of Schedule

SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT (KPIX) -- Runway repairs that began Sept. 7 at SFO have delayed and canceled thousands of flights leaving many travelers stranded. Thursday night, the construction was finished a week ahead of schedule.

Construction work to put down a new base layer on the runway was supposed to last 20 days.

Crews were able to finish the work a week early, which should bring a sigh of relief to travelers as well as the airlines.

During the weeklong shutdown, SFO experienced thousands of flight delays and cancellations. Some of those delays lasted for four hours and many passengers landing at SFO missed their connecting flights. While the runway is now open, plenty of passengers Thursday night were scrambling, dealing with delays and cancellations.

Madeline, from Australia, missed her connection because her flight was delayed by more than two hours. She said, "We missed our flight to Melbourne because of the delay but Quantas is sorting it out for us."

Another traveler named Pedro found out his flight was canceled as he arrived at the airport. Frontier Airlines offered him a $50 voucher but agents were not around at the ticket counters to offer him an alternate flight.

Now the flight schedule may be returning to normal but SFO is the 7th-busiest airport in the country with one of the worst arrival rates.

For now, the FAA has lifted the ground delay which means airlines are no longer under any restrictions.