Clouds Start to Lift for 2 Carriers

Luggage was stacked in rows longer than a football field Monday as airlines struggled to recover from the delays and mix-ups caused by regional carrier Comair’s systemwide cancellations during the holiday weekend and the failure of US Airways’ baggage system.

Comair said it would operate 60% of its flights Monday but would need at least two more days to restore its full schedule. Its planes were grounded over the busy holiday weekend by a computer failure and fallout from a paralyzing snowstorm.

The Delta subsidiary was giving priority to customers flying to airports not served by Delta and trying to find alternate flights for other passengers, said Nick Miller, a spokesman for Comair, based at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport in Hebron.

Travelers moved slowly through the long rows at the airport, looking for bags that had been misdirected or were caught up by flight cancellations.

“This is fun, isn’t it?” said Pete Lindsay, 54, a swimming coach at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, still trying to find a bag lost on a Delta flight from San Diego to Cincinnati, even though Delta told him Sunday that it had found the missing piece. He needed it for a flight today to a swim meet in Florida.

US Airways, meanwhile, was recovering from what chief executive Bruce R. Lakefield called an “operational meltdown,” with its planes flying out of Philadelphia International Airport at a near-normal pace Monday. Hundreds of US Airways flights were canceled from Friday to Sunday, the result of severe weather and large numbers of baggage handlers, ramp workers and flight attendants calling in sick.

US Airways flew two baggage-only flights from Philadelphia to its hub in Charlotte, N.C., on Sunday in an attempt to connect bags to customers.

Some undelivered bags remained stacked in Philadelphia’s baggage-claim area Monday, an airport spokesman said.

U.S. transportation officials launched an investigation into the holiday air travel mess at US Airways and Comair. U.S. Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta said his department would investigate the disruptions.

“It is important that the department and the traveling public understand what happened, why it happened and whether the carriers properly planned for the holiday travel period and responded appropriately to consumer needs in the aftermath,” he said.