Airports that closed ahead of the Friday morning landfall of
Hurricane Florence are expected to begin reopening on Saturday.
The airport in Charleston, S.C., plans to resume commercial service Saturday
afternoon.
Airports in Myrtle Beach, S.C., and Wilmington, N.C. (where
Florence made landfall), haven't announced reopening times. However, American
said it plans to resume operations in Charleston on Sunday and in Myrtle Beach
on Monday.
The two largest airports in the region, Charlotte and
Raleigh-Durham in North Carolina, remained open during Florence. American, which maintains a hub
in Charlotte, said Friday afternoon that its operations there aren't being
impacted.
Southwest, however, cancelled all Friday flights from
Charlotte and said it plans to resume flying there on Sunday. Fourteen percent
of Charlotte's Friday flights had been cancelled as of late Friday afternoon,
according to FlightAware.
Though Raleigh-Durham was open, several carriers, including
American and Southwest, shut down operations there Friday. American and
Southwest said they would restart Raleigh-Durham flights Saturday. Delta, which
battles with American and Southwest for leading share in Raleigh-Durham,
maintained the majority of its schedule there Friday, the airport said.
Forty-eight percent of Raleigh-Durham's Friday flights had been cancelled,
FlightAware showed.
Southwest has also suspended operations in Richmond and
Norfolk, Va., through Saturday morning. Norfolk airport remained open Friday,
though 44% of fights had been cancelled.
In total, 870 flights within, into, or out of the U.S. on Friday
had been cancelled as of late afternoon.