Flights Resume in New York City

NEW YORK -- New York's airports dug out from under nearly a foot of snow and allowed some flights to land Saturday morning, while Boston's Logan Airport remained closed.

The first inbound passenger flight at John F. Kennedy International Airport landed at 9:30 a.m., according to the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey, which operates the region's three major airports.

Meanwhile, Amtrak said the New York-Boston train route would remain closed Saturday as crews cleared tracks of snow and fallen trees. Trains were running south from New York, and between New York and Albany.

Airports in the Northeast shut down Friday afternoon as a snowstorm of potentially historic proportions blew in. The storm brought more than 2 feet of snow in some parts of New England and left more than 650,000 homes and businesses without power.

These days, airlines try to get ahead of big storms by canceling flights in advance. They want to avoid having crews and planes stuck in one area of the country. They also face fines for leaving passengers stuck on a plane for more than three hours under a rule that went into effect in 2010.

Logan Airport said it expects to reopen Saturday afternoon. Across the region, flights were expected to be back on close to normal schedules on Sunday. Flight-tracking Web site FlightAware said airlines have canceled 5,368 flights because of the storm. Airlines have waived the usual fees to change tickets for flights in the affected areas.

Hardest hit was JetBlue Airways (JBLU), whose routes center around the East Coast. It has cancelled 655 Friday and Saturday flights, according to FlightAware.  

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