Other Airports Affected, As Well: Word From Two Majors
Southwest Airlines temporarily suspended
service into and out of the Southern California cities of Los
Angeles International, Burbank, Ontario, San Diego, and Orange
County/John Wayne, at least through Monday, due to the dense smoke
and impaired operations of Air Traffic Control in the area.
Flights into and out of the area have either been cancelled or
are experiencing extensive delays. As a result, Customers holding
tickets for travel to/from any of these cities on Sunday, October
26, 2003, and Monday, October 27, 2003, may rebook travel or
receive a refund without penalty.
Customers booked into or
out of Los Angeles International, Burbank, Ontario, San Diego, or
Orange County/John Wayne will be re-booked on flights as soon as
operations resume. Customers are encouraged to check flight status
via Southwest's web site, southwest.com, or by calling (800)
435-9792. The effect of the wildfires could continue, so the
airline advises Customers traveling into or out of these airports
to check on the status of their flights before leaving for the
airport.
American Airlines and American Eagle expect
delays and some cancellations to and from Southern California as
wildfires hamper airline operations in and around the airports
between San Diego and Los Angeles.
The FAA's air regional air traffic control center in San Diego
was closed Sunday due to the fire threat and the FAA has slowed
commercial air traffic from Los Angeles to San Diego. Other
airports affected include Orange County, Long Beach, Burbank,
Ontario and Palm Springs.
These delays could have a ripple effect across the American
Airlines and American Eagle domestic route systems.
American has put in place a travel policy that allows customers
holding tickets for travel to and from California to make one date
or time change with no penalty up to November 3, 2003. This policy
will make it easier for people to get back to Southern California
to check on their homes and other possessions and will allow those
who had trips planned to postpone them.
For more information, customers should contact
American's reservations center at 800-433-7300. They can also check
their flight status by calling American's automated flight system,
toll free, at 800-AAFLIFO (223-5436), by contacting their travel
agent or by visiting AA.com.
America West Airlines and
America West Express, which is operated by
subsidiary airlines of Mesa Air Group, were operating flights
Monday to and from Burbank, Los Angeles, Long Beach, Ontario,
Orange County/John Wayne, San Diego, Palm Springs, Carlsbad and
Santa Barbara in Southern California. Some delays and cancellations
were expected due to an air traffic control center being evacuated
for smoke.
Customers traveling through Wednesday, Oct. 29,
2003, to or from any of the above airports may change their
reservation to travel through Monday, Nov. 17, 2003, without
penalty. Affected customers who wish to travel after Nov. 17, 2003,
may rebook travel without a change fee and the new itinerary will
be priced at the lowest available fare at the time of change.
Customers will be required to pay any difference in fares. To
rebook, customers should call 1-800-2 FLY AWA (1-800-235-9292).
United Airlines advised that
travel continues to be affected to and from major airports in the
Southern California due to wildfires in the region, with delays and
possible cancellations for Tuesday dependant upon the operational
status of the FAA's Terminal Radar Approach Control Center in San
Diego. Customers are strongly advised to visit United's website or
to call 800-824-6200 for information on cancelled or rescheduled
flights.
As such, United has revised its travel policies for
customers ticketed on or before October 26, 2003 for travel through
November 3, 2003 to or from Los Angeles International Airport,
Burbank Airport, John Wayne Airport (Santa Ana), San Diego Airport
and Ontario Airport on any United Airlines, United Express or
United codeshare flight.
For customers currently enroute who would like to
return to their point of origin, all rules and restrictions
regarding standard change fees, day or time applications, and/or
minimum stay or Saturday night stay requirements have been waived.
Customers may be rebooked on any available flight in the same class
of service on or before November 15, 2003.
Customers with unused tickets for travel within
this time period may also reschedule their travel between the same
origin and destination without a change fee. Rescheduled travel for
the same itinerary must be completed on or before November 15, 2003
and must meet the same rule and booking code restrictions in order
to guarantee the original fare. Rescheduled travel on flights
and/or dates that do not meet the original restrictions may be
subject to higher fares.
These policies also apply to any Mileage Plus award
tickets that meet these same date and itinerary guidelines.
Customers who wish to apply tickets that meet these
guidelines towards a new ticket with a different itinerary will
also have their change fee waived for travel completed by November
15, 2003; however, tickets are subject to any applicable difference
in fare. To take advantage of these revised ticket policies,
customer must contact United reservations at 800 241 6522 or their
travel professional on or before their scheduled travel date.
LAX Official Statement:
Los Angeles World Airports
officials expect air travel to begin returning to normal on Tuesday
with the announced re-opening early tomorrow morning of a Federal
Aviation Administration (FAA) radar facility north of San Diego
that controls all flights into and out of Southern California's
airports.
At 6:00 p.m. PST [Monday], Los Angeles
International Airport (LAX) is open and fully operational. However,
the airport was still experiencing flight delays and cancellations
due to the continued disruption of operations at the FAA radar
facility.
The FAA's Southern California Terminal Radar
Approach Control (TRACON) facility at Miramar was evacuated Sunday
morning, when it was threatened by one of the San Diego
wildfires.
A check of major airlines late this afternoon
indicates about 250 inbound and outbound cancellations are now
expected for the entire day -- or 15 percent of the airport's daily
1,700 operations (landings and takeoffs). No flight cancellations
are reported by the nearly 40 foreign air carriers at the Tom
Bradley International Terminal.
Airlines were selectively canceling flights today
and combining flights where possible in order to reduce the load on
the air traffic control system, while still getting travelers to
their destinations. Arrival and departure delays varied throughout
the day with some delays of up to several hours.
Most of the departure cancellations were to
destinations within California. This has resulted in rental car
companies at LAX reporting very brisk business in car rentals.
LAX officials advise passengers to check with their
airlines to ensure their flight's schedule before coming to the
airport. Airline phone numbers are available in public telephone
directories and most major airlines have current flight status
information available on their Internet websites.
[...and the newly-relocated Tempe Chargers
played NFL football for free Monday night! --ed.]