San Francisco Airport Delays to Continue

Update Wednesday: The latest from the FAA:

Due to CLOSED RUNWAY, there is a Traffic Management Program in effect for traffic arriving San Francisco International Airport, San Francisco, CA (SFO). This is causing some arriving flights to be delayed an average of 2 hours and 28 minutes.

More on the airport's current status here.

Update 11:30 a.m. SFO spokesman Doug Yakel says that average delays on arrivals are running about 60-90 minutes. Seventy flights have been canceled today, split evenly between arrivals and departure. The closure of Runway 28L is restricting arrival capacity, he said.

So how long is this going to last? Yakel said that during periods of peak demand, travelers can continue to expect delays. As to the closed runway, "We really don't know when we're going to reopen (it)."

Yakel said the problem is that the NTSB is still conducting its investigation at the crash site, so the debris removal process has yet to begin.

Original post

San Francisco International Airport is still reporting delays in the wake of the Asiana Airlines crash.

"Although flights are arriving and departing, SFO is currently experiencing numerous delays and cancellations," SFO's website says.

The airport says Runway 28L, where the plane crashed, "will remain closed for the immediate future."

The FAA's flight delay website says SFO "departures are experiencing taxi delays greater than 45 minutes and/or arrivals are experiencing airborne holding delays greater than 45 minutes." Weather is contributing to the problem, according to the FAA, "causing some arriving flights to be delayed an average of 2 hours and 35 minutes."

Oakland and San Jose airports have returned to normal operations. Both have had to accomodate rerouted planes from SFO.

Check with your airline or at SFO's arrival and departure website before you leave for the airport. You can also call the airport at (800) 435-9736.

And if you're currently traveling, you may also be interested in yesterday's NPR piece examining which passengers the airlines service first in a big flight-delay situation like the one that resulted from the Asiana crash. From the report:

Each passenger's rights on each flight are determined by a complicated calculus. It includes how frequently they fly and how much they paid for the ticket in their hand.

Frequent business travelers ... deserve special attention. These travelers generate tens of thousands of dollars a year in profits for an airline. But customers who buy a cheap ticket once or twice a year on vacation are almost worthless.

So when there's a disaster or bad weather closes an airport, available seats are doled out based on a customer's carefully calculated status, not how long they have been struggling to get home. Full article

Listen here ...