N.Y. airports to reopen early Monday

Fifth Avenue stores have been shuttered and the show won't go on tonight on Broadway as Hurricane Irene closes in on New York City. NBC's Ron Mott reports.

More than 9,000 flights have already been canceled for Saturday and Sunday as John F. Kennedy, La Guardia and Newark Liberty Airports close before Hurricane Irene strikes. NBC's Ann Thompson reports.

By msnbc.com staff and wires

(Updated Aug. 28,?7:45?p.m. EST) -- John F. Kennedy, LaGuardia and Newark Liberty airports, among the busiest in the nation, were expected to reopen early Monday after Tropical Storm Irene passed over the New York City area.

Flights once again will begin arriving at 6 a.m. Monday at John F. Kennedy International and Newark Liberty International airports, and departures were set to resume at noon,?according to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.?LaGuardia Airport will reopen Monday to both arrivals and departures at 7 a.m.

Some very limited public transport was starting to resume with a few bus services running, but the head of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority said it was too soon to say when the New York subway system would return. Commuter lines that bring many people into the city from surrounding areas were also still out.

Flights resumed Sunday morning from Reagan National Airport and Dulles in Washington, D.C., which had stayed open during the storm even though airlines halted service. The website for both airports told fliers to expect delays and cancellations. Baltimore-Washington International said it also expected flights to slowly resume.

Story: Anxious travelers wait for flights to resume after Irene

Hurricane Irene, which was downgraded to a tropical storm as it hit New York City, continues to snarl air and ground travel, causing more than 11,000 flight cancellations as well as service disruptions for buses, subways and trains.

Jessica Rinaldi / Reuters

Passengers wait in line to depart before JFK International Airport shuts down at noon in preparation for Hurricane Irene in New York on Saturday.

Collectively, JFK, LaGuardia and?Newark served more than 103 million passengers in 2010.

Helane Becker, an analyst with Dahlman Rose & Co, estimated the impact to airlines from the storm could range from $5 million if it missed the coast, to $30 million to $40 million should there be a direct hit, Reuters reports.

Amtrak service on the East Coast?was halted on?Sunday.

Anyone who had?travel plans in or around the East Coast this weekend will need to be proactive and diligent.

?The best thing to do is to call each and every company you booked with to find out what its current policy is for cancellations,? said Anne Banas, executive editor of Smarter Travel. ?Many providers relax rules in these types of situations, so even if your reservation is non-refundable or non-changeable, you might be able to rebook or get your money back.?

?Everyone?s situation is going to be different,? Banas added, ?but if you?re flexible and can postpone your trip, it?s much better to be safe than sorry.?

The iconic Grand Central terminal is empty after all public transportation and trains have stopped running, and the lights of Times Square look dimmer through the rain. NBC's Harry Smith reports.

George Hobica, the founder of Airfarewatchdog.com, said waiting for a flight cancellation could help travelers get a refund. ?The problem with proactively changing the travel date oneself is that chances are you won?t want to take the same itinerary at a later date,? he said. ?The vacation is over, the wedding has taken place, the meeting was canceled.?

Hobica added that online travel agencies such as Expedia or Travelocity can be helpful in instances like this. ?Typically call wait times are much shorter than with airline 800 numbers when there?s a crisis,? he said.

Travelers looking to rebook?plans can expect long wait times when calling an airline.

You can monitor airlines? Twitter feeds for up-to-the-minute updates. Here are the links to the Twitter pages of most major carriers:

And here are a few more helpful links to bookmark:

Airlines: Weather updates, flight changes, fee waivers

Airport status and flight-delay information

Ground transportation

Others

More on Hurricane Irene from msnbc.com

Information from Reuters was included in this report.

Source: http://overheadbin.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/08/26/7487384-ny-airports-to-reopen-early-monday

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