disarray

Airlines Resume Service, but Snarls Remain

Under clear skies, airlines that serve the New York City area and other Northeastern cities started to return their planes to service on Monday, but many warned that travelers whose plans were thrown into disarray by Hurricane Irene could still face scheduling problems and delays through the week.

Cancellations continued on Monday as airlines and airports in what is a major regional hub for national and international flights grappled with logistical problems. Airlines had relocated planes out of the area before the hurricane hit over the weekend, and are now struggling to get employees, including flight crews and terminal workers, back into position because of difficulties in commuting.

The resumption of some airline operations was in line with the partial return of other transportation systems, which were shut down throughout the New York area and in parts of Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, the District of Columbia and other urban areas because of the hurricane. Service on subways, trains and buses started to resume as millions of people returned to work on Monday morning.

Many flights were already fully booked in the week leading up to the Labor Day weekend, a period of heavy travel. So passengers who are trying to get alternate flights are trying to rebook in a packed system.

Over the weekend, almost all flights were canceled in Philadelphia and Boston, and the three big airports in the New York area were closed. In Washington, flights began leaving Sunday at both Dulles International and Reagan National, the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority said.

While more than 1,800 flights were canceled on Monday at airports in the New York City area, Boston and Philadelphia, most airlines reported they were operating again.

United and Continental said that they resumed flights starting at noon Eastern time on Monday at Newark Liberty International Airport, John F. Kennedy International Airport and La Guardia Airport. The airline said in a statement it would also resume service at several other airports along the East Coast, including White Plains; Albany; Boston; Hartford; Providence, R.I.; Portland, Maine; and Manchester, N.H.

United and Continental had canceled 2,265 flights on Saturday and Sunday, and another 437 flights on Monday, the statement said.

“The aftermath of Hurricane Irene may force some additional delays and cancellations of scheduled flights to the region on Monday,” the statement said.

As of noon on Monday, the company had resumed its operations, with the exception of the 437 previously canceled flights out of its average 5,765 flights throughout the system. “That plan is being executed and things are going as planned,” said a spokesman, Michael Trevino.

A JetBlue airlines communications manager, Mateo Lleras, said that the airline, which had canceled 1,252 flights Saturday through Monday, would operate 432 flights on Monday afternoon and expected to resume full operations sometime this week at Newark, La Guardia, Kennedy and at two other airports, one in White Plains and the other, Stewart International Airport, in Newburgh, N.Y.

Big international airlines also scrambled to catch up.

Lufthansa had canceled 18 round-trip flights in and out of Boston, New York and Philadelphia, and said Monday that it had resumed its full schedule. The airline flies through those airports to Munich, Frankfurt and Düsseldorf in Germany.

The effects of the hurricane seeped into operations throughout the United States.

After dealing with 131 flight cancellations over the weekend due to Hurricane Irene, Denver International Airport reported just 11 canceled flights on Monday morning. All of Monday’s canceled flights had originated on the East Coast and were scratched because of the storm, said Jenny Schiavone, a spokeswoman for the airport.

The airport did not expect any further cancellations or delays because of the hurricane, she said.

Aside from a few cancellations of flights heading into Baltimore over the weekend, the Albuquerque International Sunport experienced virtually no major delays or disruptions due to the storm.

“We were spared,” said an airport spokesman, Daniel Jiron, noting that the airport did not offer many direct flights to the East Coast. “The direct impact was very, very minimal.”

In Atlanta, Katena Carvajales, a spokeswoman for Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, said there were no delays there although there were some cancellations.

Greg Chin, a spokesman for Miami International Airport, said there were four flights with delayed arrivals from Nassau in the Bahamas, and 20 canceled flights to and from the Northeast, five of them departures and 15 arrivals.

Joe Sharkey, Daniel Frosch and Robbie Brown contributed reporting.

Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=303227b511f2202d33c98c7d0098516c

Saudi Arabia, Defying OPEC, Will Raise Its Oil Output

The Saudi newspaper Al-Hayat reported on Friday that oil officials there had decided to increase production to 10 million barrels a day in July, from 9.3 million barrels, with most of the additional output going to China and other growing Asian economies.

Saudi oil officials did not comment on the report, but the fact that they did not deny an article that appeared in the tightly controlled Saudi press was taken by analysts as confirmation.

The price of a barrel of light sweet crude dropped by nearly $2.64 to $99.29 a barrel in Friday trading, returning to the level that existed before the OPEC meeting in Vienna this week that ended in disarray, with delegates refusing to raise official production levels.

The Saudi move, which was not unexpected, shows that Saudi Arabia will try to counteract any shortages in the market arising from the turmoil sweeping through North Africa and Middle East.

The fighting in Libya has taken 1.3 million barrels off the world market, and the turmoil in Yemen and Syria has subtracted an additional 300,000 barrels.

“The Saudis are showing they can take unilateral action,” said Andrew Lipow, a former Amoco trader who is president of his own consulting firm. “It will show the markets that the Saudis are serious about tempering further increases in price.”

Saudi Arabia is by far the largest producer and exporter in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, and is the only member that has considerable spare production capacity. That normally gives the country predominant power in OPEC.

But this year, tensions are running high between Saudi Arabia and Iran as they compete to influence political tides convulsing the region, particularly in Bahrain, where more than 1,000 Saudi troops are bolstering a Sunni monarchy against mostly Shiite protesters supported at least verbally by Iran.

Iran, which holds the revolving OPEC presidency this year, blocked Saudi efforts at the group’s meeting in Vienna to raise official production quotas. Since many countries including Iran already are exceeding the quotas, the failure to increase them was seen as largely a symbolic slap at Saudi Arabia.

Middle East and oil analysts viewed the Saudi decision Friday as a counterpunch directed at Iran, one that would ultimately show that Saudi Arabia remained the most powerful OPEC member whether it acted inside or outside the cartel.

“Saudi Arabia is meeting an Iranian challenge,” according to an article published online by the Dubai-based, Saudi-owned Al Arabiya news organization. “The kingdom signaled its intention to confront Iran and meet potential shortages in supply.”

But there is only so much Saudi Arabia can do to satisfy a tightening world market. The country has an estimated spare production capacity of 2.5 million to 3 million barrels a day, a thin cushion especially if violence spreads in the Middle East and with oil consumption growing through much of the developing world.

China alone imported 876,000 more barrels a day this May than in the same month last year, according to Barclays Capital.

In its monthly report, OPEC estimated on Friday that global demand would rise by 2.5 million barrels a day in the second half of the year. With demand growing and production rising by a mere 200,000 barrels a day among non-OPEC producers, the report predicted there would be “much higher demand for OPEC crude, reaching a level higher than current OPEC production and implying a draw in inventories.”

OPEC members are currently producing 28.8 million barrels a day, about 1 million barrels a day below what world markets will require in the second half of the year, according to Jeff Dietert, an oil analyst at Simmons Company International, an investment bank.

“This incremental supply will help keep oil prices from rising more sharply,” Mr. Dietert said of the Saudi move, but he added that prices would probably still go up.

Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=6affdb927c1ac2f2db9b99dc19988e4e

Airlines Resume Service, but Snarls Remain

Saudi Arabia, Defying OPEC, Will Raise Its Oil Output

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