After nearly 13,000 Harvey cancellations, Irma is new threat to airline flights

Another hurricane threat has emerged for airlines this week with Irma threatening to snarl U.S flight schedules. That comes just as the industry was trying to get back on track in Texas following Hurricane Harvey.

For Irma, airlines had already begun waiving change fees to several Caribbean destinations with the storm – just upgraded to a category 5 hurricane Tuesday morning – taking aim at the region. Several airlines added certain Florida airports to their waivers by Tuesday afternoon, and the coverage areas for the rebooking policies could keep expanding as Irma tracked toward the U.S. mainland.

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Fliers ticketed to travel this week to the northern Caribbean will be forced to cancel or postpone trips to destinations such as Guadeloupe and Dominica. Other Caribbean destinations — including St. Maarten, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and the Dominican Republic — also appeared to be in Irma’s path before Friday. Florida travelers also faced disruptions as mandatory evacuations were added there. 

Flights to and from many Caribbean islands were already cancelled, or were going to be. For Wednesday, about 85 flights – or more than 40% of the day’s schedule – had been grounded at San Juan’s airport, according to flight-tracking service FlightAware. The San Juan airport is the busiest in Puerto Rico.

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On Tuesday, American Airlines canceled its normal schedules to the islands of St. Kitts and St. Maarten, but added flights earlier in the day to help people leave prior to Irma’s arrival.

Travelers should stay on top of Irma’s track and be prepared for widespread disruptions throughout the northern Caribbean. By the weekend, the storm appeared likely to affect South Florida and the Bahamas, though the precise track remained uncertain.

The hurricane will blast the northern Caribbean with flooding rain, damaging winds and rough surf over the next few days, AccuWeather warned, bringing life-threatening conditions to the islands.

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A similar scenario could play out somewhere along the Gulf or East coasts of the United States this weekend or next week, depending on where Irma tracks. 

Meanwhile, in Texas, airlines were still working to get back to full speed after Harvey’s devastating impact there.

On Tuesday, 11 days after Harvey first began affecting flights in Texas, more than 630 flights had been canceled nationwide, according to flight-tracking service FlightAware. Most of that total came at Houston’s Bush Intercontinental and Hobby airports, where the dominant airlines at each were still building back toward normal operations.

During a 12-day period stretching from Friday, Aug. 25, through Tuesday, Sept. 5, more than 13,300 flights have been canceled across the nation. The vast majority of that total came to or from airports in Texas, a direct result of Harvey. By comparison, “Superstorm Sandy” forced the cancellation of about 20,000 flights along the East Coast during an extended period in 2012.

At Hobby, where Southwest operates most of the airport’s flights, conditions were inching closer to normal. Southwest suspended all flights there last weekend and did not resume operations there until Saturday afternoon. About 15% of Hobby’s flights had been canceled on Tuesday and it will take until later this week until a full schedule is likely.

“We are operating 70%-80% of our HOU flights now with plans to be back to a full schedule by Thursday,” Southwest spokeswoman Brandy King said in an e-mail to Today in the Sky.

United, which operates its second-busiest hub at Bush Intercontinental, said a similar timeline was likely there.

“Operationally, we are getting back to normal and anticipate operating all scheduled flights by Sept. 8 (Friday),” spokeswoman Maggie Schmerin said to Today in the Sky. 

Contributing: Doyle Rice