About half of Horizon Air's Q400 turboprops are back in service, helping the airline reduce the number of canceled flights.
Only 54 flights will be canceled today, said Horizon spokesman Josh Campbell.
There will be no canceled flights in or out of Pasco, he said.
On Friday, 89 flights were canceled, including two flights in and out of the Tri-Cities Airport.
The airline expects to inspect and return to service additional planes at the rate of two a day through Monday.
Instead of limiting inspections to the 19 of Horizon's 33 Q400 planes with at least 10,000 takeoffs and landings, Horizon decided to inspect its entire fleet of Q400s.
This slowed a return to normal service, but the airline expects fewer cancellations over the weekend, Campbell said.
The Q400 fleet is being inspected in response to a Transport Canada airworthiness directive issued Wednesday after two Canadian-manufactured Q400s reported landing gear failures in Europe.
By late next week, Horizon will know when it can resume full service.
Horizon is asking customers flying this weekend to check their flight status at www.horizonair.com or by calling the reservations center at 800-547-9308.
Customers on affected Horizon flights are being offered refunds or the chance to cancel at no charge, or are being rebooked without any change fee.
There may have been a few frustrated customers, but most have seemed to understand the situation, Campbell said.
Horizon planes fly daily to 48 cities in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, California, Colorado, Montana, Nevada, British Columbia and Canada.
w Pratik Joshi: 582-1541; [email protected]
