Airline cancellations from super storm Sandy extend to Thursday

Airline cancellations continued to mount, with a few carriers beginning to cancel flights scheduled for Thursday.

Super storm Sandy is now blamed for the cancellation of 18,100 flights, stretching from Saturday to Wednesday, according to the travel monitoring site, Flightaware.com.

The canceled flights were primarily to and from storm-ravaged cities along the East Coast.

About 50 or so flights were already canceled for Thursday.

The website Flightstats.com has animated the effects of the storm on flights in an online video, shown above.

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Dulles International and Ronald Reagan International airports in Washington began offering limited service Tuesday.

But New York and New Jersey’s biggest airports, including La Guardia, John F. Kennedy and Newark Liberty International, suffered flooding damage and may remain closed for several more days, officials said.

Travel experts suggested that fliers who have not been stranded by the storm wait until next week to try to book a flight.

“A lot of people are just not going to go if they are already home,” said George Hobica, founder of Airfarewatchdog.com, a website that offers travel advice and fare alerts.

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