Airlines are diverting flights through regional airports and offering to reroute passengers as delays and cancellations because of runway construction at San Francisco International Airport continue.
More than 2,000 flights have been delayed or canceled since construction began Saturday. Numbers have been dropping slightly from a Sunday peak of 379 flights delayed and 143 canceled to 345 delayed and 112 canceled Tuesday, according to the tracking site FlightAware.
By midafternoon Wednesday, more than 250 flights were delayed and 71 canceled. SkyWest had the most cancellations, followed by Southwest, with some flights nixed hours before their scheduled departures. United, which accounts for 45% of SFO’s traffic, had the most delays.
Construction has been continuous since Saturday, 24 hours a day, and the project is ahead of schedule, SFO spokesman Doug Yakel said Wednesday.
“Communications between SFO, the FAA, and airlines continue to ensure we’re making the very best use of our existing two runways to minimize delay impact,” Yakel said in an email. “Earlier this week, winds were stronger than normal, which led to more use of a single runway for both arrivals and departures, and contributed to delays. These winds conditions are improving, and look to continue in the coming days.”
Airlines have offered to reschedule passengers to or from nearby airports or rerouted flights entirely.
Since Saturday, Oakland has received five to 10 diversions from SFO a day, which didn’t require increased staffing or capacity or cause delays or cancellations, airport spokeswoman Keonnis Taylor said Wednesday.
“Oakland International Airport staff has facilitated substantial coordination with our airline partners and other stakeholders in preparation for San Francisco’s runway closure,” Taylor said by email. “OAK is prepared to support air traffic increases caused by these activities, as needed.”
Separately, a small private plane caught fire as it attempted to take off from the Oakland airport Wednesday, causing no injuries but blocking the main runway for about two hours, according to Taylor. The fire broke out in the wheel well of the plane and was extinguished by emergency crews. The plane’s occupants and its destination were not immediately known, the spokeswoman said. Commercial flights were diverted to a secondary runway until the plane could be towed back to the terminal. It was not immediately clear whether the incident contributed to flight delays.
San Jose received 16 incoming flights from Saturday until Tuesday originally scheduled to land at SFO, airport spokeswoman Rosemary Barnes said Wednesday. Flights were primarily Alaska Airlines E-175 aircraft that seat up to 78 passengers.
“The flights have been accommodated at our gates and have not impacted our operation. We are pleased to support SFO and our mutual airline customers during the runway infrastructure enhancements at SFO,” Barnes said in an email.
Sacramento had a couple of United flights heading to SFO over the weekend that were canceled or rescheduled, said airport spokeswoman Samantha Mott.
“I’m sure it frustrates some of our passengers, but we’re not feeling a major impact having to shuffle anything around,” Mott said.
Airports aren’t tracking how many customers were rescheduled to arrive on a flight to a different airport — and airlines aren’t saying how many customers have been rerouted or volunteered to change their schedules.
“During the airport’s runway closure, we are trying to take care of as many customers as possible and get them where they need to be,” United spokeswoman Maddie King said in an email Wednesday.
The airline planned in July to reduce its flight schedule by around 10% during the September construction.
“We monitor flights day to day and will adjust our schedules as needed,” King said. “We took out a number of flights from our schedule in July to reduce congestion during the runway closure, and will continue to monitor our daily operations to best serve our customers.”
Southwest can reroute passengers through Oakland or San Jose.
“We’re working with our teams to ensure we have minimal impact to our customers during construction,” Southwest spokesman Dan Landson said in an email Wednesday. The airline reduced its traffic by about 10% during the three-week construction. “We encourage customers who are scheduled to travel to/from/through San Francisco to visit Southwest.com, which has information regarding flexible accommodations due to the construction project.”
For some passengers, delays have extended over multiple days.
Dwayne McDaniel, who lives in San Francisco, booked a trip with United two months ago to be in Tucson, Ariz., for work Wednesday morning. On Monday afternoon he learned his flight was canceled. He was rebooked for a later direct flight, but it was also canceled and he got rerouted through Denver.
Because of a delay leaving SFO, McDaniel missed his connecting flight in Denver and had to spend the night there.
“I asked about hotel vouchers and was told that was not available for this circumstance and I was on my own for that part of it. Fortunately, I have several friends in Denver and can crash for a night, but I can’t imagine the horror of spending the night in the Denver airport,” he wrote in an email to the Chronicle.
McDaniel finally made it onto a 9:30 a.m. flight to Tucson on Wednesday — making him late for the reason he traveled in the first place.
Chronicle staff writer Steve Rubenstein contributed to this report.
Mallory Moench is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: [email protected] Twitter: @mallorymoench
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