Airlines get planes back into skies after Irene

All major East Coast airports reopened Monday, but it could be today before struggling airlines can return to a full schedule of flying after the havoc caused by Tropical Storm Irene.

Fliers faced an additional 1,682 flight cancellations Monday, according to the flight-tracking service FlightAware. Those cancellations -- on top of about 12,000 Saturday and Sunday -- came as airlines sought to get in planes they'd moved out of Irene's path and crew members to fly them out of some of the nation's busiest airports.

The result: Hundreds of thousands of travelers with canceled tickets are in search of seats on crowded planes as the country rolls toward the busy Labor Day holiday travel weekend.

New York's JFK and LaGuardia, nearby Newark and Philadelphia airports reopened. And airlines quickly expanded their schedules by the afternoon after getting planes and crews in place to fly in and out of the nation's busiest airspace.

The airlines say they hope to have all scheduled flights in the air today. But they also warned that passengers can face jam-packed flights as the carriers seek to rebook the big backlog of passengers.

"(Plane occupancy) is going to be high, particularly in New York, for the next few days," says Morgan Durrant, a spokesman for Delta Air Lines.

Although the backlog is large, the scramble for flights over the next several days could have been worse if travelers hadn't seen Irene coming and begun rearranging their travel plans the last several days, says aviation consultant Michael Boyd.

"People aren't coming in now," Boyd says. "A lot of people who have to go back home to Omaha, that's 30% (of the backlog). Airlines will digest that in 48 hours."

Richard Marchi, senior adviser to Airports Council International-North America, says airports in the Northeast were able and eager to resume service quickly because the damage from Irene was less than feared.

"There's a period of about half a day of cleanup, and you're pretty much back to normal," Marchi says.

That was the case for many airlines Monday:

JetBlue began flying at its home base at New York JFK at about 3:30 p.m. but had to cancel 336 flights.

Delta canceled 400 flights, but expects a full schedule today. Durrant says all passengers should be rebooked before the end of the week, because "there is a bit of wiggle room" before the rush of the Labor Day weekend.

United Continental, which operates a Continental hub at Newark, began flying out of there about noon after canceling 437 flights for the day. United also added 30 flights to and from New York.

American Airlines had its first arrival at JFK at 6 a.m. but canceled 89 flights the rest of the day.

US Airways canceled 270 flights Monday but expects to cancel none today, spokesman Todd Lehmacher says. Flights at its hub at Philadelphia were back to normal by the afternoon, he says.

Southwest canceled 100 flights but says it expects a full schedule today. AirTran canceled 29 flights but added 18 since Saturday to accommodate rebooked passengers, spokeswoman Judy Graham-Weaver says.