British Airways and Virgin Atlantic are laying on extra flights to fly an estimated 10,000 Britons stranded in New York due to Hurricane Irene.
But travellers have been warned that clearing the backlog, as schedules get back to normal after the closure of New York area airports over the weekend, would take “a few days”.
At least 9,000 aircraft are thought to have been grounded by the storm which battered the US east coast before moving north into Canada. BA has two days’ worth of flights to catch up on and has sent three extra aircraft to New York’s JFK and Newark airports. It was hoping to return to a normal schedule yesterday.
Virgin Atlantic urged those without confirmed reservations not to turn up at the airport, saying it would not accept any stand-by passengers.
“We can confirm that we are now operating a full flying schedule to and from the east coast of the United States,” a spokesman said.
“Additional seats will also be made available to ensure that the backlog of passengers away from home is cleared as soon as possible.”
A BA spokesman said: “It’s the peak time of year for travel. People are coming back from summer holidays to start school, so flights are full anyway. Combine that with having to cancel flights and it will certainly take a few days to ensure everyone gets away.
“We have a finite number of aircraft we can deploy and we’re looking to put on extra flights. Our priority is to maximise the number of people we can get onboard.”