Airlines begin airlift out of New Orleans
By LESLIE MILLER
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Relief flights donated by airlines began to fly into Louis Armstrong International Airport in New Orleans at a rate of about four an hour, beginning midday today.
Transportation Department spokesman Greg Martin said the planes will be bringing in supplies and leaving with people. Most of the flights will take refugees to Lackland Air Force Base in Texas.
The first flight today, he said, was a Spirit Airlines MD-83.
Even before an announcement could be made, Southwest Airlines Co., dispatched a Boeing 737 from Dallas to New Orleans just before noon today, according to airline spokeswoman Paula Berg. She said the plane would take evacuees to Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio.
The airport building and runway weren't damaged much by Hurricane Katrina, but navigational aids such as radar weren't working.
Martin said the Federal Aviation Administration was able to establish limited operations within a day of the hurricane. Work over the past few days allowed the airport and air traffic control to sustain a more systematic relief effort Friday.
Air traffic controllers in New Orleans are handling about 300 flights at any given time, Martin said. "All of them are providing humanitarian relief," he said.
The airport is now able to handle nighttime flights thanks to runway lights provided by the military, he said.
More than a dozen passenger airlines and their crews volunteered to provide emergency airlift to more than 25,000 New Orleans residents stranded after Hurricane Katrina.
They are Alaska Airlines, America West, American Airlines, ATA, Continental, Delta Air Lines, Jet Blue, Northwest, Southwest, United, US Airways and Air Canada.
US Airways announced they will begin this afternoon and continue at least through the weekend. US Airways will provide a 126-seat Boeing 737-300 aircraft, as well as other aircraft as needed.
The mission would be styled after a program in which the military uses commercial airliners to transport troops.
While airlines said they were willing to fly airlifts, they want the government to pay the cost of the operation. The nation's major airlines have lost billions since the recession and terror attacks of 2001. AMR Corp., the parent of American, the nation's largest carrier, has lost more than $7 billion.
Airline officials said they were working through a trade group, the Air Transport Association, and the federal Homeland Security officials to secure approval for airlifts.
Airline pilots have been agitating for rescue flights for several days, at least since an American Airlines Boeing 757 landed at New Orleans' Louis Armstrong Airport to deliver supplies and evacuate more than 100 stranded employees and passengers.
"If we save one life wouldn't it be worth the effort?" said Jeff Grinnell, an American Airlines captain. "We're ready to go."
Airlift = aluminum bridge.
The gamble paid off and relief is arriving in quantity.
Big thumbs up to the outnumbered police and Guard for holding the line long enopugh for the outside effort to organize and gather steam.