Airlines start canceling flights as Irene nears

[nadinbrzezinski]

Airlines began to cancel flights and move planes out of the way as Hurricane Irene barreled toward the U.S. mainland on Thursday.

The storm will likely force hundreds of cancellations through this weekend and create delays that could ripple across the country.

Airlines said passengers could rebook those trips to many East Coast destinations, from Boston to the Carolinas, for free.

American Airlines and its American Eagle affiliate, with an extensive network in the Caribbean, canceled 126 flights on Thursday. Most were in the Bahamas and south Florida, including Miami, a jumping-off spot for flights to the Caribbean and Latin America.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Airlines-start-canceling-apf-1763891330.html?x=0

Not that this should be shocking. Airlines will need to get assets out of harms way

[SheilaT]

1. I can tell you as a former airline employee

(ticket agent at DCA from 1969 to 1979) this is new since I used to work for the airlines. But it's definitely an improvement over the old "let's see what happens and go from there."

I got stranded at DCA when Agnes came through. We were told that the George Washington Parkway was underwater, which was absolutely not true, as I learned when I got a ride to my apartment in Alexandria from a fellow employee. Others stayed at the airport, unnecessarily, because of bad information.

No matter what, good info is crucial.