WASHINGTON — As Hurricane Helene moves north, airports are already seeing the impact.
Tampa International Airport closed starting at 2 a.m. Thursday and expects to reopen Friday, pending damage assessment.
The FlightAware tracker is also showing cancellations in Southwest Florida, Sarasota, and Atlanta.
At Reagan National Airport, cancellations were already starting in Tampa, Fort Myers, and Key West as of 6 a.m. Thursday.
Early Thursday, flights to Miami were still scheduled to take off on time, but ripple effects can mount throughout the day, so DCA officials were recommending that passengers continue to check their flight's status throughout the day.
One passenger, Olivia Okinczyc, said she was heading to Belize for work via Miami.
"I'm headed to Belize city Belize.. through Miami. We'll see about the weather and the connections," she said. "If i get stuck in Florida, my family is like four hours away so maybe that helps or maybe i just have to stay in a hotel for a couple days until I can go."
In an attempt to get ahead of the backlog, multiple airlines are offering free rebooking through Friday or Saturday.
American Airlines, which is the biggest carrier at DCA said if you have a flight scheduled between September 25 and the 28 to the following airports, they'll rebook you for a later flight for free:
- Asheville, North Carolina (AVL)
- Atlanta, Georgia (ATL)
- Augusta, Georgia (AGS)
- Birmingham, Alabama (BHM)
- Charleston, South Carolina (CHS)
- Charlotte, North Carolina (CLT)
- Chattanooga, Tennessee (CHA)
- Columbia, South Carolina (CAE)
- Florence, South Carolina (FLO)
- Greenville / Spartanburg, South Carolina (GSP)
- Hilton Head, South Carolina (HHH)
- Huntsville, Alabama (HSV)
- Johnson City, Tennessee (TRI)
- Knoxville, Tennessee (TYS)
- Myrtle Beach, South Carolina (MYR)
- Nashville, Tennessee (BNA)
- Savannah, Georgia (SAV)
Some other airlines offering similar deals include Delta, Southwest, JetBlue, Frontier, Spirit, and Alaska.
For most of them, you have to schedule your new flight by Friday or Saturday.
When it comes to passengers' rights, there are fewer guarantees for a non-controllable delay or cancellation, like major weather events.
However, the new Department of Transportation rules say that airlines have to offer you a full, prompt refund for any cancellation or significant delay, which is defined as a delay of more than three hours domestically and a delay of more than six hours for international flights.