The holiday blizzard that buried the Northeast forced airlines to cancel 57 flights in and out of Tampa International Airport on Monday.
Travelers flying today might have more luck, with the Big Apple's major airports back in business.
New York's John F. Kennedy International and LaGuardia airports and New Jersey's Newark Liberty opened Monday evening and were expected to stay open today.. The airports closed Sunday or early Monday. Metro New York is by far the biggest market for Tampa International.
It could be days before airlines flying out of TIA can find seats for travelers on canceled flights, with planes flying full for the holidays. JetBlue Airways told Barbara Belashuk that she would have to wait until New Year's Eve to return to White Plains, N.Y.
"I expected a delay, but not until Friday,'' said Belashuk, a bookkeeper visiting family in Valrico. "I feel terrible. I'm going to miss work. I have friends watching my dog.''
JetBlue canceled the 9:30 a.m. Sunday flight that Mario Velasquez and his family were going to take back to New York. He was upset that the airline canceled his flight but flew another one at 11:30 a.m. that same day to New York. On Monday morning, the airline said the family would have to wait until Friday. Facing big hotel bills, Velasquez tried without success to find seats on other airlines. The best he found was an American Airlines flight Thursday.
Carriers canceled 53 flights Sunday to and from Tampa International. More than 400 flights depart and arrive from TIA on an average day in December.
Both Sunday and Monday, most local cancellations were planes scheduled to fly between New York and Tampa. But they included flights to and from destinations across the Northeast and mid-Atlantic — Albany, N.Y., Baltimore, Boston, Hartford, Providence, R.I., and Philadelphia.
St. Petersburg-Clearwater International reported no weather-related delays.
Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.
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