Post date: Dec 28, 2010 7:37:32 PM
Airports in the New York metropolitan area open after a recent blizzard, but many passengers continue to wait in terminals, hoping to get a seat on the next available flight out of town.
NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (DECEMBER 28, 2010) REUTERS - New York's three major airports began to get back on track on Tuesday (December 28), after a winter storm that blew through the area beginning on Sunday (December 26) dropping up to 20 inches ( 50 cm) of snow.
At LaGuardia Airport, passengers could be seen curbside, checking in baggage with the help of airport porters. These passengers were the lucky ones whose flights were still on track to take off as planned.One of those passengers was Susan Rubin, who was bound for Miami.
"This is when it's supposed to take off so I'm hoping we'll get off on time, and got lucky this time - usually I'm smack in the middle of the storm but today I'm not, so I got lucky."
But inside the American Airlines terminal the lines were still long and congested, and many passengers were still waiting to be assigned to flights that were clear to fly.
"We got boarded for yesterday, but then they canceled everything yesterday. So now we're doing this big line over here because now they're canceling other flights. We're definitely not going to get out of here today but, we're just stranded basically," said Tony Morales who was traveling with his family of five to Miami.
Morales said you have to take the delays in stride.
"You can just stand in line and do the thing, that's it, just do it. Even though you know you're not going to get on. But that's the way it is."
Veronica Abreu has been trying to get home to San Francisco since Sunday and has been assigned to four flights, only to see them all canceled.
"They put me on a connection through Chicago. Hopefully that will take off although the flights seem to be being randomly canceled. It's unclear which ones are likely to go, which ones are not, and just hoping I can get home," said Abreu, who was in New York for the Christmas holiday.
With 4,500 flights canceled or delayed on Sunday and Monday in New York's three major airports alone, airline officials said it could take another day or two to work through the backlog.
The 20 inches (50.8 cm) of snow that fell on Central Park marked the sixth largest New York City snowfall since records have been kept, according to the National Weather Service.