Flight schedules continued to pick up steam at airports in the Carolinas as the remnants of Hurricane Florence lifted north.
Airlines had resumed service to many of the region’s airports, including South Carolina’s busy airfields in Charleston and Myrtle Beach. Near-normal schedules were likely at both on Monday, with residual delays and cancellations lessening into the afternoon.
Schedules also should be close to normal in Charlotte, North Carolina, a busy hub for American Airlines. Regional jet flights were curtailed there Saturday and Sunday as American pared operations by its commuter affiliates as Florence’s remnants moved through the area. That forced the cancellation of about a third of the flights at Charlotte, though a large chunk of those cancellations were to smaller airports in the Carolinas.
Some airports in hard-hit North Carolina communities were taking longer to reopen. Wilmington’s airport remained closed to airline service, and it was unclear when flights might resume.
Schedules varied at other airports. New Bern officials said they hoped flights could resume Monday. For other airports, such as the ones serving Jacksonville and Greenville in North Carolina – it may take until later this week before flights restart.
Overall, more than 3,760 flights have been canceled nationwide since Florence first began affecting airline schedules on Wednesday, according to flight-tracking service FlightAware. The bulk of those cancellations were to or from airports in the Carolinas.
Already, after days of heavy cancellations in the region, schedules had improved significantly for Monday.
Nationwide, about 210 flights – most in the Carolinas – had been canceled as of 2:05 p.m. ET. That’s down sharply from previous days, including the 769 counted by FlightAware on Sunday and 871 on Sunday. Friday’s flights were the most heavily disrupted by Florence, with more than 900 cancellations reported by FlightAware.
Pre-emptive cancellations still stretched into Wednesday, but the totals were coming down as more airports resumed flights. About 50 flights were already grounded for Tuesday and another 13 for Wednesday. Most of Wednesday's cancellations were between Charlotte and the North Carolina airports of Greenville and Jacksonville, where operations have been slow to restart amid flooding concerns.
