Airport crews battle fourth storm

Philadelphia International Airport crews are working nonstop, battling high winds and blowing and drifting snow to keep runways open, the airport says.

Three of the airport's four runways are open, but there are 49-minute delayed for some arriving flights, said airport spokeswoman Victoria Lupica.

Airlines are running as close to full schedules as possible, but as the day progresses, additional cancellations or delays are possible, the airport said.

Lupica said flights arrived as early as 4:30 a.m., a US Airways flight from Tel Aviv, Israel. Those flights operating are departing without delay, she said.

Southwest Airlines Co., Philadelphia's second busiest carrier, has canceled the "majority" of its 53 flights today out of Philadelphia, said spokesman Paul Flaningan.

Southwest is operating 13 flights, where the airplanes were already here and the flight originated in Philadelphia.

"We canceled 40 flights today so far," said Southwest Philadelphia station manager John Minor. "We are hoping to get the aircraft that were here last night out today and that would give us 13 departures. At this point, three of the 13 flights have left the gate."

Southwest canceled flights where aircraft were coming from elsewhere. The only Southwest flights that will arrive today will be in the evening, after 7 p.m., and the planes will remain parked at the airport overnight, Flaningan said.

US Airways Group, Philadelphia's dominant carrier, canceled 80 of its 400 daily flights today out of Philadelphia, and 413 system wide out of 3,100 departures.

"There's an air traffic control program, which is delaying inbound flights to Philadelphia," said US Airways spokesman Morgan Durrant. "But the worst of the storm tracked north and missed the airfield. We hope the winds subside some, but don't anticipate any conditions worsening."

Continental Airlines canceled 5 of its 6 flights to Cleveland today, and its 4 daily flights to Newark, N.J.

Continental's five flights to Houston from Philadelphia are operating.

"Our Newark hub is being severely impacted today," said Continental spokeswoman Mary Clark.

American Airlines today canceled some flights to Chicago and Dallas, which are American hubs. The carrier is still flying to Miami, Fla. and San Juan, Puerto Rico from Philadelphia. "It is more about thinning out the schedule then picking a place to cancel," said American spokeswoman Tim Wagner. "We have a lot of flights to Chicago O'Hare and Dallas-Fort Worth. So we have pulled down flights to those two hubs and consolidated passengers on the remaining flights."

"We have a lot more cancellations in the New York area," Wagner said. "In fact, we have more cancellations in the Washington, D.C. area, too. We didn't have cancellations yesterday, but all of a sudden we have cancellations today."