Airlines try to recover from weekend snow

HEBRON, Ky. -- Luggage was stacked in rows longer than a football field Monday as airlines struggled to recover from the delays and mix- ups caused by regional carrier Comair's systemwide cancellations during the holiday weekend and the failure of US Airways' baggage system.

Comair said it would operate 60 percent of its flights Monday but would need at least two more days to restore a full schedule. Its planes were grounded over the busy holiday weekend by a computer failure and fallout from a paralyzing snowstorm.

The Delta subsidiary was giving priority to customers flying to airports not served by Delta and trying to find alternate flights for other passengers, said Nick Miller, a spokesman for Comair, based at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport in Hebron.

Travelers moved slowly along the long rows at the airport, looking for bags that had been misdirected or were caught up by flight cancellations.

"This is fun, isn't it?" said Pete Lindsay, 54, a swimming coach at Miami University in Oxford, still trying to find a bag lost on a Delta flight from San Diego to Cincinnati, even though Delta told him Sunday it had found the missing piece. He needed it for a flight out today to a swim meet in Florida.

About two dozen flights, nearly all Comair, were listed as delayed out of 400 flights on the terminal's information monitors.

Miller said he did not know how many customers were affected by Comair's problems but said the airline serves 30,000 travelers on a normal day.

About 50 people stood in line Monday at the ticket counter shared by Comair and Delta, down from the 100 people who waited for help Sunday.

Brittani Gray, 16, arrived at 7:45 a.m. Monday for a 9 a.m. Comair flight to Houston, but missed it because the line to pass through security stretched up three flights of stairs. Her parents booked her on a later Northwest Airlines flight so she could attend a volleyball camp in Austin, Texas.

"We've got six hours to kill. I've got magazines, movies. I'll probably sleep," Gray said.

Comair's computer system that manages flight assignments failed Friday night, overwhelmed by cancellations and delays caused by the winter storm that socked the Ohio Valley.

US Airways was recovering from what its chief executive called an "operational meltdown," with its planes flying out of Philadelphia International Airport at a near-normal pace Monday. Hundreds of US Airways flights were canceled from Friday to Sunday, the result of severe weather Thursday and large numbers of baggage handlers, ramp workers and flight attendants calling in sick.

US Airways flew two baggage-only flights from Philadelphia to its hub in Charlotte, N.C., on Sunday in an attempt to connect bags to customers.

Some undelivered bags remained stacked up in Philadelphia's baggage-claim area Monday, an airport spokesman said.

On Sunday, US Airways canceled 43 out of about 1,200 flights systemwide, down from 143 cancellations on Saturday and 176 on Friday.

In a memo to employees, US Airways chief executive Bruce Lakefield thanked those who helped "our customers during the operational meltdown we experienced over the weekend." However, he criticized those who exacerbated problems by calling in sick.

Union leaders representing workers in negotiations with the airline over pay and benefits concessions denied any organized effort to slow operations.

US Airways, which is operating under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, approved a new contract with its reservations and gate agents Thursday that slashed pay by 13 percent. The airline is seeking deals with flight attendants and machinists that it says it needs to drastically cut labor costs to survive beyond mid-January.

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