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Local air carriers unfazed by overseas power outage

China Airlines Co (華航) yesterday canceled a return flight from John F. Kennedy Airport (JFK) in New York to Taipei because of a power outage that struck a region from New York to Michigan and parts of southern Canada.

The nation's largest international carrier said its Flight CI011 with 250 passengers on board, which was supposed to fly back from New York yesterday, was canceled. But it's flight from Taipei's CKS International Airport to JFK yesterday was unaffected, the airline said.

The power outage struck the northeastern US has forced travel disruptions that may persist for several days.

But the situation in New Jersey seemed better, said Eric Lin (林司忠), a public-relations official at EVA Airways Corp (長榮航空).

Lin said two of EVAs Taipei to Newark flights were delayed for one hour each. There were about 460 passengers on the two flights, designated BR0032 and BR0031, he added.

The two airlines said they had no plans to delay or re-route their flights in the next few days as electricity was slowly flowing back to the region.

Meanwhile, other Asian airlines such as Japan Airlines System Corp, Singapore Airlines Ltd and Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd have delayed flights.

The US Federal Aviation Administration halted take-offs at six airports in the US. The agency later lifted the ban at Newark and LaGuardia airports in the New York area and in Cleveland, and was expecting takeoffs to resume at JFK in New York late yesterday, agency spokeswoman Laura Brown said.

"Singapore Airlines flight SQ25, scheduled to depart JFK in New York at 21:45 hours local time, has been delayed due to the power outage situation," Singapore Air said in a statement. "We continue to monitor the situation closely."

Cathay Pacific spokeswoman Rosita Ng said flight CX828 to Toronto from Hong Kong had stopped in Vancouver because of the power outage in Toronto.

Japan Airlines said 235 passengers on board a flight that landed in New York on Thursday evening had to stay on board for two hours because of the power shortage.

The flight was scheduled to continue onto Sao Paulo at 8:35pm New York time. The onward journey has been delayed until 1:00am, spokesman Tatsuo Yoshimura said.
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