Airlines scramble to resume flights after ground stop as cancellations continue

Detailed summary

Airlines scrambled Sunday to return flight schedules to normal by the evening, two days after a nationwide ground stop triggered widespread ...

Airlines scrambled Sunday to return flight schedules to normal by the evening, two days after a nationwide ground stop triggered widespread cancellations and delays across the United States.

While thousands of flights were disrupted this weekend, with over a thousand more cancellations reported Sunday, airlines worked to reposition aircraft and crews, after officials expressed confidence that the worst of the disruption is over.

”We’re going to see things come back to normal today, but probably fully normal tomorrow," Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy told ABC News on Sunday.

Federal Aviation Administration Administrator Bryan Bedford said airlines expect "they’ll be able to have a full schedule integrity by the close of business on Sunday.” "I do think the worst is behind us,” he said at a news conference Saturday.

The flight-tracking website FlightAware reported that more than 6,600 flights within, into or out of the U.S. were canceled on Saturday, with at least 1,300 additional cancellations recorded early Sunday.

American Airlines said all planned cancellations for Saturday night and Sunday had been completed, although some individual flights could still be canceled as it works to restore operations.

American also indicated that its cargo operations were expected to return to normal Sunday.

Other carriers issued a more cautious update. Delta Air Lines said it was continuing to restore its operations but advising customers with flexible travel plans to move their flights to Monday or later because of the potential for further disruption Sunday.

Alaska Airlines said Saturday that it was working to restore normal operations but warned that aircraft and crew members had been left out of position as a result of the disruption and cancellations. The airline said it would take time to get its schedule back on track over the weekend but did not give a specific time frame for a return to normal service.

Opening of the article, excerpted from The Peninsula. To read the rest, open the article on the publisher's site.