LaGuardia Airport Reopens After Severe Flooding From Hurricane Sandy

By Dexter Keyton

Many airports on the East Coast have reopened after Hurricane Sandy forced them to close earlier in the week.

LaGuardia Airport in New York is now reopened after severe flooding that caused the runways to shut down has been cleaned up.

The airport has kept visitors in the loop with information on their website. A message posted last night announced their reopened status, stating, "LGA will open tomorrow, Thursday, November 1, at 7:00 AM. Air carriers will be operating limited flight schedules. Please contact your airline before traveling to the airport to determine the status of your flight."

Nearby, Kennedy and Newark Liberty airports have reopened and began taking flights Wednesday morning. Both airports are operating under limited but stable operations.

Hurricane Sandy caused over 100,000 flights to be delayed or canceled over its three day path through the U.S. FlightStats.com reported today that 2,695 flights have been canceled across the country, with the figure likely to rise as more flights are stopped as cleanup continues.

While many still remain stranded trying to reach their respective destinations, flight operations are slowly resuming to a normal level. According to the The Huffington Post, Delta Airlines is trying to operate at 50 percent capacity and American Airlines is working toward 70 percent of normal operations.

Currently all airlines in the region are operating at limited capacity depending on respective conditions of the airports, according to The Street.

Kent Powell, spokesperson for American Airlines, said on Wednesday the following: "Today we are on target to resume operations in most cities (among) the nine to 12 where the storm forced closings. It's entirely possible that the aftermath of the storm may force some additional delays and cancellations -- particularly at LGA, JFK and EWR -- where substantial flooding occurred."

Other major airports in the region, such as those in Washington and Philadelphia, reopened earlier in the week.