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Airlines began to cancel flights and get planes out of the way as Hurricane Irene barreled toward the U.S. mainland on Thursday.
The storm will likely force hundreds of flights to be cancelled through this weekend and create delays that could ripple across the country.
Airlines said passengers could rebook those trips to many East Coast destinations, from Boston to the Carolinas, for free.
As of late Thursday afternoon there were nearly 900 cancellations into, out of, or within the United States, with the majority concentrated at New York's three major airports, along with Philadelphia and Miami. Although not all cancellations were a result of Irene, that figure was several times greater than the number of cancellations on a typical day.
American Airlines and its American Eagle affiliate, with an extensive network in the Caribbean, canceled 126 flights on Thursday. Most were in the Bahamas and south Florida, including Miami, a jumping-off spot for flights to the Caribbean and Latin America.
Even before Irene's arrival, unrelated thunderstorms were causing delays of up to two hours Thursday at major airports in the New York and Washington areas, according to flight-tracking service FlightAware. The service's CEO, Daniel Baker, predicted that Irene-related cancelations would pick up Friday afternoon and become significant on Saturday, when the storm is expected to come ashore in North Carolina.
The airlines' preparation reflects a new approach to dealing with big storms. In recent years, they have waived ticket-change fees and canceled flights long before storms arrive. That has helped reduce the number of travelers and flight crews who get stranded at airports. Canceling flights ahead of time keeps planes out of the path of damaging storms and lets airlines resume normal schedules more quickly after the bad weather passes.
ctms will continue to monitor the situation and will be in contact with passengers affected with alternative options where available.
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