By Keith L. Alexander
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 19, 2006; A06
The sizzling summer heat caused power outages at parts of New York's LaGuardia Airport, forcing two major carriers -- American Airlines and Delta Air Lines -- to cancel dozens of flights yesterday, disrupting plans for thousands of travelers.
Delta canceled eight of its 16 shuttle flights between Washington's Reagan National Airport and LaGuardia and nine flights between LaGuardia and Boston's Logan International Airport. American was hardest hit, having to cancel 45 of its 129 LaGuardia flights. Delta's shuttle flights were back in operation by yesterday evening, while American did not plan to resume service until today.
The airlines said they had to cancel flights primarily because passenger screening machines couldn't work without electricity and because it was not possible to hand-screen throngs of passengers and their luggage.
Both carriers said they expected operations to be normal today, though thunderstorms were moving into the area and could affect flights. Only Delta and American were disrupted because they operate in the areas where the power outages struck: the western part of the airport's Marine Air Terminal and Concourse D of the central terminal.
Some New York subway service was also disrupted by power outages. Amtrak rail service in the Northeast was unaffected, said Amtrak spokeswoman Tracy Connell.
American was able to allow flights to land yesterday at LaGuardia but canceled departures. Most of the airline's passengers were bused to John F. Kennedy International Airport or Newark International Airport and booked on other flights. American added extra flights at those airports to accommodate the additional passengers.
American did allow a few smaller, regional flights to take off yesterday from LaGuardia because those flights had fewer passengers with fewer checked bags. American employees processed passengers and screened bags while generators pumped electricity into the airport.
The problems first occurred Monday evening when the cable that feeds power to the western part of the airport went down.
Pasquale DiFulco, a spokesman for the New York-New Jersey Port Authority, said yesterday evening that power was being restored gradually and should be completely back on by early today. DiFulco said most of the affected passengers were rerouted onto flights in other parts of LaGuardia or to nearby New York airports.
"This wasn't what you see during winter snowstorms. Most people called ahead and were rebooked," he said.
Despite the assurances, airline officials encouraged travelers flying into New York today to call their airlines' reservation centers or check the Web sites to verify their flight status.
Staff researcher Richard Drezen contributed to this report.