Air travel across the US and Canada was unsnarling on Saturday after two days of chaos caused by the largest power blackout in US history.
Flight cancelations fell sharply as airports, airlines and air traffic control centers switched back to commercial electricity supplies. But stranded passengers were warned to still expect long lines and delays.
Travel experts said the situation might not return to normal until tomorrow as airlines reposition planes and try to find room for stranded fliers on busy weekend flights.
"All the affected areas are back on commercial power," Hank Price, spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration, told reporters.
Cleveland, New York and Boston air traffic control centers were all operating on commercial power again, he said.
But problems lingered at Detroit's Metro Airport, which coped with sporadic power outages, said Nico Melendez, spokesman for the Transportation Security Administration.
Air Canada was gradually increasing operations on Saturday, including resumption of flights to the US, and expected to be back to normal by evening.
Across the US, flight cancelations slowed to a trickle after more than 1,000 flights were canceled on Friday.
American Airlines, the largest US carrier, said 30 flights were canceled on Saturday compared with 295 on Friday.
Northwest Airlines said 15 flights were canceled on Saturday versus 174 on Friday. Delta Air Lines canceled 14 flights. JetBlue Airways canceled no flights on Saturday and only 22 of a scheduled 268 flights during the entire ordeal.
There were still big problems in jamming passengers onto a limited number of flights.
Most airlines were still experiencing delays because many planes were left out of position when the lights went out on Thursday, and recent schedule cutbacks have left some carriers with few spare seats. Also, fewer planes fly on weekends.
American Airlines spokesman Carlo Bertolini warned that passengers should be prepared for "larger-than-usual crowds at check-in counters and security checkpoints."
"It could be until late Monday or Tuesday before the New York situation is fully cleared up," Tom Parsons, head of travel firm Bestfares.com, said in an interview with MSNBC.
Getting through check-in and security was taking hours at some airports.
"We're just advising our passengers -- treat it like a holiday and leave extra time," a Delta Air Lines spokesman said.
Full power was restored at Detroit's Metro Airport, but conditions were shaky, with one terminal losing electricity at least seven times in four hours.
Wait times for security screening at Metro are between 45 minutes to one hour, said Melendez of the Transportation Security Administration.
Canadian television showed long lines at Toronto's Pearson Airport. Air Canada, the country's main airline, grounded flights on Friday when emergency power systems crashed at its main operations control center near Toronto.
One industry export said the blackout's cost to the airlines was likely to be in the tens of millions of dollars.
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