Blizzard still snarling U.S. air travel

NEW YORK, Dec. 29 (UPI) -- The Christmas blizzard that snarled the U.S. East Coast was disrupting air travel and tormenting pilots, air traffic controllers and stranded passengers said.

AirTran, American, Continental, Delta Air Lines, JetBlue, United, U.S. Airways, Spirit and Southwest airlines reported canceling 9,726 flights because of weather since Saturday, CNN reported Wednesday.

At John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, some passengers on international flights have been forced sit up to 11 hours on the ground before deplaning, including a few flights early Wednesday morning.

A Cathay Pacific Airways flight from Vancouver, British Columbia, landed at JFK at 2:12 a.m. on Tuesday, but no one got off until after 1 p.m. The airline apologized Wednesday.

"With all the cancellations and delays, it'll be two to three days before the airlines are at a regular schedule," said Thomas Bosco, general manager of New York's LaGuardia airport.

As airlines struggled to get schedules back to normal, some travelers' calls were left on hold for more than an hour or disconnected, The Boston Globe reported. Most airlines have waived rebooking fees for passengers affected by the storm.

The blizzard has also revealed the effects of airline cutbacks.

Carriers have reduced the number of flights, so many are operating close to capacity and it can take longer to rebook passengers on the few seats available after flights are canceled. Airlines also have closed call centers as more passengers turn to the Internet.

"Airlines have cut everything so far that there's little flexibility to recover during severe weather emergencies,'' said Henry Harteveldt, an industry analyst.

Amtrak said it would resume normal rail service Wednesday between Boston and Washington, but passengers could see delays.