Flights

United Airlines and Northwest Airlines said yesterday that they will cut thousands of jobs and eliminate hundreds of flights, in the latest sign that the airline industry stands to lose billions of dollars as many travelers opt to stay home while war is waged in Iraq. Northwest, the nation's fourth-largest airline, said it will lay off 4,900 and cut capacity by 12 percent in response to reduced bookings. United, the nation's second-largest, plans to cut its schedule by 8 percent and temporarily furlough about 3,500 mechanics and flight attendants, labor leaders said.

US Airways' tentative agreement with its pilots paves the way for it to begin a low-cost operation that could force down fares on the East Coast and add significantly more discount flights at Baltimore-Washington International Airport.In a last-minute deal Tuesday night, the airline and its pilots agreed to devote 23 percent of US Airways' service to a new division that would compete with rapidly expanding discount carriers such as Southwest Airlines and Delta Express.The company has repeatedly said that BWI, a relatively uncrowded airport, would be pivotal to such a discount operation.

For the second consecutive year, transportation crews got their winter tune-up before Halloween, battling blinding rain and high winds as well as slick roads and blizzard conditions. At the height of the storm overnight, 132 state roads were closed and 111 signals were dark, according to the State Highway Administration. As snow piled up at more than an inch an hour in Western Maryland, a 50-mile stretch of Interstate 68 was closed as trucks with snowblower attachments and a "towplow," a double-wide snowplow, cleared the way. At the other end of the state, powerful floodwaters tore apart a 72-inch culvert under Old Ocean City Road and opened a huge sinkhole In all 1,200 SHA workers were on duty from Deep Creek Lake to Ocean City . "The challenge was the intensity and diversity of the storm," said Melinda Peters, SHA administrator.

A Massachusetts-based airline said yesterday that it is in talks with a local businessman to operate flights to Ocean City from Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport. The flights would be BWI's only scheduled service to the resort town. Cape Air, a private, 16-year-old airline that flies nine-seat Cessna 402s in small markets in New England, Florida, the Caribbean and Micronesia, said it may partner with Wayne Simmons, who briefly operated flights last fall to Ocean City Municipal Airport on his namesake Simmons Air. Simmons said interest was high on the flights that cost $45 one way. But he discovered his last partner was not properly licensed for the airline's size.

Travel from Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport was only slightly affected Saturday after Southwest canceled 300 flights nationwide following a depressurization incident in one of its planes. The incident happened on Friday as a plane traveling from Phoenix to Sacramento lost pressure. The plane diverted to Yuma, Ariz.. where a flight attendant and one passenger were treated for minor injuries, according to Southwest. Southwest canceled 300 flights nationwide Saturday as engineers from Boeing and safety officials examined the Boeing 737 and the 79 like it in the company's fleet.

Ever had a flight canceled? Ever wonder why?Despite vigorous denials from the airline industry, many travelers for years have suspected that when their flight is scrubbed because of "mechanical problems," the airline is really canceling it because it hasn't sold enough tickets.Robert L. Crandall, chairman of American Airlines, has called this suspicion "one of the great fictions about the airline business." Yet when I called three experienced California travel agents to raise the issue, not only did each immediately say that airlines often cancel undersold flights, all three agents volunteered citations of recent cancellations they found dubious.

Air travelers stranded thousands of miles from their destinations boarded flights yesterday, some viewing their forced grounding as added vacation days, others as a way to accomplish more work. The Federal Aviation Administration halted all flights Tuesday morning after four planes hijacked by terrorists crashed into the Pentagon, the World Trade Center in New York City and a Pennsylvania field. Sally Sexton, 56, of Hamilton was visiting her sister in San Diego and was to leave Tuesday morning.

On the final night of a weeklong Western Caribbean cruise, Trent Whisler turned on CNN and saw the future. It was white, and it was cold. Uh-oh. He had been worried about making a quick ship-to-plane connection home on Saturday. But if the forecast storm actually arrived, there would likely be no flights at all from Fort Lauderdale to Baltimore. "I don't think we have to rush," he told his wife, Teresa, and their teenage daughter, Mariah. Six days and four canceled flights later, the tanned family stood outside Baltimore- Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport at noon Thursday, coatless, gloveless and shivering.

H e dragged his camouflage duffel down the long, sterile corridor, thinking only of getting a shower, a chance to stretch his legs, the moment he'd see his family again. Cmdr. Eddie Ha had been in Baghdad for nine months as part of the Iraq war effort, and the flight from Ramstein Air Base in Germany - the third leg in a two-day journey - had taken eight hours. His shoulders slumped. Then he heard the roars. As Ha, 39, of San Diego, stepped through double doors into International Baggage Claim at BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport, he found himself amidst 150 cheering, clapping strangers.

For 30 years, Southwest Airlines Co. has confounded competitors by offering cheap fares on short flights. Saddled with higher operating costs, major carriers have taken solace in the fact that the no-frills airline doesn't fly cross-country nonstop. That's about to change. Beginning Sept. 15, Dallas-based Southwest will offer twice-daily nonstop flights between Baltimore-Washington International Airport, where it is the dominant carrier, and Los Angeles International Airport for $99 each way. It will mark the first time the airline has offered regularly scheduled nonstop coast-to-coast service.