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Bay Area Flight Cancellations Rise Even As East Coast Airports Reopen

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) - Flight cancellations at Bay Area airports keep ticking upwards even though many East Coast airports shut over the weekend because of Tropical Storm Irene have reopened.

Five departing flights at San Francisco International Airport were cancelled on Monday:

  • 2 US Air flights to Charlotte
  • 1 United Airlines flight to JFK
  • 2 Continental runs bound for Newark

Sarah, a school teacher from New Jersey who asked that her last name be withheld, was supposed to be on one of those Continental flights. Instead her two toddlers' Bay Area visit with the grandparents has been extended another week.

"Friday or Saturday night on a red eye is when we'll be flying," she said.

Despite a fruitless trip to SFO, she was taking the disruptions in stride.

"School is going to begin without me and my house is flooded, but you know, there's worse things in life," she said.

KCBS' Holly Quan Reports:

SFO Airport spokesman Mike McCarron said 26 arrivals were also canceled Monday morning from Boston, the New York area, Chicago and Philadelphia.

Oakland International Airport was still tallying its cancellations.

Smaller New York area airports  are still closed. Stewart International Airport is expected to resume flights Tuesday. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the airports, said Teterboro Airport in New Jersey is partially flooded and will reopen once damage can be repaired.

There are limited seats for passengers stranded because of Irene. Many flights are full ahead of Labor Day weekend.

Chan Lee, a freshman at New York University, spent 13 hours on a flight with his parents from Saipan, only to wind up stuck in the Bay Area. The three managed to re-book, but Lee said he's going to miss move-in day and orientation.

"They separated me, my mom and my dad," he said. One flies Thursday, another Friday and another on Saturday.

Flight tracking service FlightAware registered nearly 1,500 cancelled flights on Monday, adding to the nearly 12,000 grounded this weekend.

That tops record cancellations seen with a pair of massive snow storms this winter.

(Copyright 2011 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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