United Airlines and Southwest Airlines have suspended flights at two Houston airports because of the flooding brought on by Hurricane Harvey.
The 10 United Express flights between the George Bush Intercontinental Airport, the airline's largest hub, and Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport/Adams Field were canceled on Monday as a result.
The airline has a total of 536 daily flights, evenly split between United Airlines and its regional carrier, United Express, according to a United spokesman.
Southwest suspended its operations at William P. Hobby Airport, which also is in Houston and is a major hub for the airline with about 150 flights daily. The airline no longer has direct flights between Hobby and Clinton National. Passengers using Southwest to make the journey must switch planes in Dallas.
The shutdown of operations at Bush also appeared to reverberate throughout the United system and resulted in some delays, including at least two scheduled departures from Clinton National to other destinations.
Clinton National issued an advisory Monday morning warning of the cancellations.
"Passengers with reservations to Houston for this week are asked to please check with their airline before coming to the Little Rock airport," Shane Carter, the spokesman for the airport, said in the statement.
United said in a statement that because of "severe weather and unsafe road conditions near the airport," it was suspending all operations from George Bush Intercontinental Airport until at least noon Thursday.
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Southwest said on its website that it had suspended operations at Hobby but gave no date on when operations would resume.
The airline also said flights to and from four other Texas airports may be delayed, diverted or canceled. Those airports included Austin, Corpus Christi, Harlingen and San Antonio.
Both airlines were offering free waivers to passengers who had already booked flights to re-book them later at no cost.
United's travel waiver is for customers booked on flights to, from or through Houston and 13 other cities in Texas and Louisiana from Aug. 25 through Sept. 5.
Customers may reschedule their itineraries for travel through Sept. 20 with a one-time date or time change, and the airline will waive the change fees and any difference in fare for flights booked in the same cabin and same arrival/destination airports.
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The Texas airports affected include Austin, Brownsville, College Station, Corpus Christi, Harlingen, Laredo, McAllen and San Antonio. The affected Louisiana airports are in Alexandria, Baton Rouge, Lafayette, Lake Charles, New Orleans and Shreveport.
Southwest's offer is for those on booked flights to and from Houston falling between Aug. 24 and Sept. 4. Those passengers may change their origin or destination without paying additional charges to Austin, Corpus Christi, Dallas or San Antonio.
Business on 08/29/2017