Air Travel Takes A Hit After LAX Shooting
BOSTON (CBS) - The question is how long will it take for airline travel to return to normal operations after the Friday morning shooting at the Los Angeles airport.
Figures compiled Friday evening indicated that over 800 flights may have been delayed, canceled or diverted to other U.S. airports. These changes were not in the plans of travelers including many from Logan Airport.
LAX is a major route for American, Delta, JetBlue, United and Virgin America from Boston.
Once planes in Boston are delayed, it takes at least 24 hours to get all the flights back on schedule.
The incident happened at about 9 a.m. in Los Angeles just as business travelers were headed home and leisure passengers were getting an early start for the weekend. With planes over 80 percent full on Friday, passengers had troubles re-booking flights.
Another major disruption was caused by the delay of international flights and passengers who had tickets on connecting flights to other U.S. airports.
LAX handles over 60 million passengers a year. Logan Airport is expected to handle 30 million in the calendar year that ends next month. That will be a record at the Boston airport.
The shooting was the second major incident at a California airport this year. Earlier an Asiana jet crash-landed at the San Francisco airport. At that crash, one of the problems encountered was the delay in getting emergency ambulances and other vehicles to the airport over nearby roadways.
From the TV pictures in Los Angeles, it appeared that the response by LA police and ambulances was quick and effective as the airport was shutdown.
Massport and the State Police had an unannounced late evening safety drill at Logan earlier this year in Terminal C.
Safety of passengers continues to be the top priority for the Boston airport.
All Things Travel Reports with Bob Weiss can be heard this weekend on WBZ News Radio.
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