Flights slowly resuming at airports battered by Sandy

Air travelers hoping to fly on Halloween day faced grisly flight disruptions as Hurricane Sandy's impact on flight schedules spilled over into a fourth consecutive day.

More than 19,500 flights have already been canceled since Sunday because of Sandy, with hundreds — if not thousands — more of more likely to be added to that tally by the week's end.

In New York, flights have resumed at two of the city's three big airports — Newark Liberty and New York JFK — though only skeleton schedules are expected today (Oct. 31). Flights have yet to resume at flooded LaGuardia airport, though airport and airline officials have expressed hope that could happen on Thursday.

Other airports in the region also are getting back up to speed, though to varying degrees.

In the Washington, D.C., area, flight schedules were returning to normal at Washington Dulles, Washington Reagan National and Baltimore/Washington, though some lingering cancellations were still being reported at all three.

That also seemed to be the case elsewhere in the region, where schedules have resumed airports in Boston, Hartford, Harrisburg, Long Island/Islip and others albeit with some continuing disruptions.

Still, the longer that operations at the New York city airports lag, the stronger the domino effect will be that disrupts operations at other airports. Even in lesser weather events, disruptions at the New York City airport frequently ripple out to airports across the nation and sometimes have a major impact on delays elsewhere.

Already, people stranded mid-trip say they're having a hard time getting home.

NBC's Today show talked to one New York-bound flier who was stranded in London on Tuesday.

"The earliest I would be able to fly to Boston is Friday," the unidentified woman tells Today. "And that would just to be Boston, not even to New York."