Direct flights from Moscow to New York were expected to resume Monday after a weekend of cancellations as Hurricane Irene pummeled the U.S. East Coast.
Aeroflot, which canceled its Saturday and Sunday flights from Sheremetyevo Airport, said service would resume Monday and promised to rebook flights at no cost by phone or at any of its offices, Interfax reported.
Delta Air Lines, which also canceled its weekend flights, indicated on its web site Sunday that its daily New York-bound flight would take off as scheduled Monday, while Transaero, which scrapped its Saturday flight to New York, said its next flight would depart at 10:40 a.m. Monday.
"If there are no restrictions, we will fly it," Transaero spokesman Sergei Bykhal told Interfax.
Both Delta and Transaero also are allowing passengers to change their tickets at no cost.
Hurricane Irene elevated into a category 3 with winds up to 200 kilometers per hour when it struck the Bahamas early Thursday, after battering the Caribbean islands of Puerto Rico and Hispaniola. The storm brushed past Florida and deteriorated into a category 1 before again making landfall in North Carolina on Friday as it moved up the U.S. East Coast.
Flood warnings have been issued for Boston and New York, with some 7,000 flights heading into New York's three regional airports canceled over the weekend.
The storm has caused at least 11 U.S. deaths.
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