Canceled. Canceled. Canceled. And if you're lucky, delayed.
That was how the status of flights out of Philadelphia International Airport looked for passengers yesterday, even with the nation's air transportation system back online.
"I was scheduled to go out at 11 this morning," said American Airlines passenger Dan Schraub, 50, of Fort Worth, Texas. "Now, they've told me there's a flight out at 7:40 tonight."
Although Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta announced at 11 a.m. yesterday that the nation's airspace was officially open, in Philadelphia -- as at the bulk of the airports across the country -- flight operations did not resume until late yesterday afternoon.
There was no word whether Schraub made his flight, but the odds were not good.
According to Mark Pesce, spokesman for Philadelphia International, the restrictive nature of the Federal Aviation Administration's new security regulations prevented flights from taking off before 3 p.m.
"By the time the airlines got their aircraft ready system-wide, it was early afternoon," Pesce said.
That left many passengers like Schraub forced to rely on other forms of transportation.
In fact, at the airport, the only transportation available for most of yesterday was rental car, taxi, bus or train.
"I have my wife in Dallas trying to get ahold of Amtrak," Schraub said. "But it takes something like 40 hours from here."
But despite the inconvenience passengers faced yesterday -- and will likely face today -- it was difficult finding one who was upset.
"All I can say is that considering the trauma we've all had, everyone has been extremely cooperative and nice," said Norma Gompertz, 70, a registered nurse from the Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., area.
Gompertz, who was in Philadelphia for a medical visit, had been trying to leave the city since Tuesday.
"I just watched the [monitors] and they said my flight was on time," Gompertz said.
But Gompertz was lulled into a false sense of security the flight status monitors in the airport provided.
More than one security official at the airport yesterday described the inaccuracy of the monitors.
Still, for Melissa, a US Airways passenger travelling to Puerto Rico, optimism was not out of order.
"I felt like they would probably shut down air transportation for maybe a day, but I didn't think it would go past that," Melissa said. "But I'm not going to give up hope."
And some passengers could finally stop resorting to mere hope by late last night.
While no numbers are available, flight operations at Philadelphia International were "somewhat busy" and "running smoothly" at 9 p.m., Pesce said.
But for most of the day, the airport was not the bustling hub of Philadelphia communications most people remember.
The roads going through the airport were eerily quiet save for the occasional police car, leaving Philadelphia International resembling an aeronautical ghost town.
Newspapers in vending machines still bore the haunting date of Sept. 11, and sky caps, stripped of their normal curbside duties by the FAA, were left roaming the airport.
Cornelius Thorp, 46, of West Philadelphia, who normally works the curb at Terminal A, was unsure what his duties would be when he arrived for work tomorrow at 11:30 a.m.
"I've been off the last two days," Thorp said. "I have no idea what I'll be doing."
Thorp was seen 15 minutes later waiting for a train to take him back to 30th Street Station, presumably excused from yet another day's work.
Behind security checkpoints, where only ticketed passengers were allowed, newsstands and gift shops -- once ubiquitous features of any American airport -- were closed, their lights turned off.
"They're telling us to go home," said David Yuong, 21, a manager at one of the airport businesses. "They're just telling us to leave."
