Hurricane Sandy's grounding of more than 6,800 commercial flights, including all departures and arrivals at metropolitan New York's three major airports, will disrupt air-travel networks throughout the U.S. and beyond. The effects will be felt mostly by business travelers' carriers' third-quarter earnings, Bloomberg reported.
Scrubbed flights include about 1,200 yesterday and more than 5,500 today, said Daniel Baker, CEO of Houston-based FlightAware.
While carriers are halting operations at LaGuardia, John F. Kennedy and Newark Liberty airports, flights to and from other areas will also be affected. New York's airports together represent a linchpin in the U.S. network, serving more than 52 million departing passengers last year and outstripping the world's busiest airport, Hartsfield-Jackson in Atlanta.
"This is a time period that's relatively slow for travel, so it's mostly going to affect business travelers," Rick Seaney, CEO of website Farecompare. Read more.
U.S. stock exchanges also are grounded today, causing international stocks to drop and gasoline prices to rise. Click here for more on the markets.