The east coast of the United States is clearing up after Hurricane Irene petered out into a tropical storm, leaving New York City relatively unscathed on Monday.
Thousands of flights were cancelled across the US in anticipation of hurricane damage, and airlines expect delays and disruption to continue for several days as they attempt to clear the backlog of flights.
Airlines had relocated planes out of the New York area before the storm hit over the weekend, and are now struggling to get employees, including flight crews and terminal workers, back into position.
Industry analysts said that it could take about a week to unwind the snarled traffic caused by the approximately 10,000 to 12,000 flights cancelled because of the hurricane, although it depended on the airline and the airport.
