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.]

FMI: www.southwest.com; www.amrcorp.com;  www.americawest.com; www.united.com