Air travelers face more delays post-Irene
Last Updated 10:55 a.m. ET
NEW YORK — Many travelers heading to and from the East Coast still face days of delays, even as airlines start flying again Monday at major airports that closed for Tropical Storm Irene.
Airports in the New York area are open again now that Irene has left town, and airports around Washington, Philadelphia and Richmond, Va., have resumed flights. But the long closure of J.F.K., LaGuardia and Newark Liberty Airports means travel delays will continue rippling across the country.
Flight tracking service FlightAware said there are nearly 1,500 cancelled flights on Monday, adding to the nearly 12,000 grounded this weekend. That tops record cancellations seen with a pair of massive snow storms this winter.
There's no easy way to squeeze all those displaced passengers onto scheduled flights. Finding open seats will be especially difficult this week because it's the last gasp of the summer vacation season.
"We're coming into the Labor Day holiday weekend, so a lot of those flights are already full," said Todd Lehmacher, a spokesman for US Airways.
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Cathay Pacific Airways, Hong Kong's biggest airline, said it is adding extra flights to and from New York City this week to help clear the backlog caused by Tropical Storm Irene.
Airlines won't say how many passengers have been grounded since Irene came ashore in North Carolina on Saturday.
FlightAware put the total of affected travelers at around 650,000, noting that many of the flights canceled were on regional airlines that use small planes. Some travel experts suggested much larger numbers — 1 million or more.
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For many, the waiting continues this morning, even though Irene is long gone. All three New York area airports are now up and running. The smaller Stewart International Airport in New York City's northern suburbs was to resume flights Monday. Teterboro in New Jersey suffered flooding and remains closed.
If you're traveling to or from the Atlantic seaboard, expect limited service at best. Some airlines, like Continental and United, have announced they won't be resuming flights in New York until noon at the earliest.
Delta, American, JetBlue, Southwest, AirTran and US Airways have also canceled Monday-morning flights to the New York and Boston areas.
And ground transport alternatives remain limited, with bus and train service disrupted into Monday as well along the East Coast.
Airlines also moved several hundred planes out of the storm's path to avoid damage, which will further slow the return to normal service.
In New England, Portland International Jetport remained open Sunday, but nearly all flights for the day and some scheduled for Monday morning had been canceled, city officials said. All flights from Bangor International Airport were canceled Sunday.
Airlines said passengers should call ahead and make sure they have a confirmed seat before going to the airport, but the 670 flights that FlightAware said airlines had canceled for Monday is a small share of the nation's daily flights.
When blizzards hit the East Coast in December and February, it took some passengers days to get home. That could happen again.
Sara Hesselsweet of Norwalk, Conn., and her family were to fly home Sunday from vacation at Lake Tahoe on the California-Nevada border. After their flight was canceled, American Airlines told her it couldn't find seats for her, her husband and 2-year-old son until next Saturday.
So the family decided to fly from Reno, Nev., to Dallas and on to Chicago, where they would rent a car to drive back to Connecticut.
"We checked Philadelphia, D.C., Boston, the Carolinas — we couldn't get a flight anywhere," said Hesselsweet, sitting amid a pile of carry-on bags in the Reno airport.
Getting mass transit back on the road
Passengers hoping to ride the rails face problems from flooding, debris on tracks, and power issues. Amtrak's northeast corridor line was down all weekend, along with New Jersey and New York mass transit systems - both shuttered at noon on Saturday.
Most Amtrak services between Philadelphia and Washington resume this morning, but all services between Philadelphia and Boston remain cancelled, reports CBS News correspondent Elaine Quijano.
New York City officials said they weren't sure Sunday evening when mass transit would be fully restored after shutting down Saturday. Some local buses came back to service Sunday, and subways have resumed limited service Monday, though officials said commuters should expect long lines and long waits. Downed trees and high water still covered commuter train tracks across the region, according to a temporary transit information website offering periodic updates, mta.info.
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Airline officials said those disruptions would affect their ability to get back into gear.
"It's really dependent upon mass transit and the airport being ready to support the start-up," JetBlue CEO Dave Barger told NBC.
Long-distance bus and train companies also saw lingering effects from Irene, which was downgraded early Sunday from a hurricane to a tropical storm as high winds ebbed.
Greyhound scrubbed bus travel between Richmond, Va., and Boston all weekend. A spokeswoman said buses would begin to roll north out of Richmond Monday morning and the company hoped to be running in New York by midday.
Amtrak said trains from New York to Florida will be canceled Monday, as will the car train between Lorton, Va., and Sanford, Fla. Some lines in North Carolina and Florida will be open.
Amtrak said in a statement Sunday evening that many routes south of Philadelphia will resume operation, while it canceled many trains between New York and points north. The railroad said separately that its inspections are revealing problems with wiring and signals, as well as trees blocking the tracks. Passengers with paid tickets on canceled trains can rebook or receive refunds by calling 800-872-7245 or visiting Amtrak.com.