By Joe Myxter, travel editor
(Updated Aug. 27, 9:15 a.m. EST) -- Hurricane Irene is on a collision course with the greater New York area and is snarling air and ground travel with thousands of flight cancellations and?service disruptions for buses, subways and trains. One travel expert expects to see a number of travelers stuck at the airport.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey announced late Friday evening that all New York City-area airports, including John F. Kennedy, La Guardia and Newark Liberty, would close to all arriving flights starting at noon on Saturday. The airports will remain open for departing flights for now. Also closed to incoming traffic will be Teterboro in New Jersey and Stewart International, a regional airport about 60 miles north of New York City.
Kennedy, LaGuardia and Newark are among the busiest airports in the nation. Together, all five airports serve 1.2 million flights and 104 million passengers a year.
The Port Authority said it was taking the action to avoid stranding passengers at the airports when the region's mass transit systems won't be running because of the hurricane threat.
"People would get in and not be able to get anywhere," spokesman Steve Coleman said. "We don't want people stranded at the airports."
He said a decision about whether to ground all flights likely would come Saturday afternoon from the Federal Aviation Administration.
More than 3,300 flights have already been canceled for Saturday and 4,900 canceled for Sunday, most of them affecting airports along the Eastern Seaboard, according to FlightAware, a flight-tracking website.
Hurricane Irene is already causing travel disruptions by air and rail. NBC's Ron Mott has the latest from LaGuardia Airport, New York.
United Airlines said it is canceling about 2,300 flights for Saturday and Sunday, and suspending operations at JFK, La Guardia and Newark airports.
Delta Air Lines canceled 1,300 flights Saturday through Monday, and will suspend?all Sunday flights traveling to and from the New York airports.
US Airways canceled 311 Saturday?flights and 1,000 Sunday flights. The carrier will not operate flights into or out of Washington National, Dulles and Baltimore late Saturday and into Sunday, and will extend the cancellations to flights into and out of Philadelphia, New York and Boston and New England on Sunday.
JetBlue Airways was the first carrier to announce major cancellations on Friday, grounding nearly 900 flights throughout Sunday and Monday. The low-cost carrier is ?examining running extra flights on Saturday night and Monday night so that we can get customers where they need to go,? it said on its blog.
Cliff Owen / AP
Travelers wait in line to board Amtrak's Northeast Regional train to Boston at Union Station in Washington on Friday. Amtrak is reducing East Coast train service on Saturday and canceling service in the Northeast on Sunday.
American Airlines canceled 278 Sunday flights, and Southwest 48, FlightAware reports. Southwest also suspended all incoming and outgoing flights in Norfolk, Va., on Saturday.
Airlines have been slow to release information on flight cancellations.
"I don't understand what the airlines are doing," said Joe Brancatelli, publisher of JoeSentMe.com, a business travel website. Because airlines aren't proactively canceling flights, Brancatelli predicts "a bizarre number of people stuck at the airport" ? far more than those caused by numerous snowstorms last winter. "I just think [airlines] waited too long," he said.
Brancatelli noted that people most likely to be stranded are leisure travelers who are not as travel-savvy and accustomed to maneuvering through airports?as frequent travelers. He suggests travelers not head to the airport if they're not booked on an early flight. "If they're not getting out by the first flight [Saturday] morning, stay in place," said Brancatelli.
The Metropolitan Transit Authority, meanwhile, announced it will suspend subway, bus and some train services on Saturday. MTA will begin shutting down subways and buses at noon ET.
Late Friday, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said it would close JFK on Saturday at noon so passengers won't be stranded once transit systems are suspended.
Amtrak announced Saturday service reductions, and does not plan East Coast service on Sunday.
Anyone planning to travel in or around the East Coast this weekend will need to be proactive and diligent.
?The best thing to do is to call each and every company you booked with to find out what its current policy is for cancellations,? said Anne Banas, executive editor of Smarter Travel. ?Many providers relax rules in these types of situations, so even if your reservation is non-refundable or non-changeable, you might be able to rebook or get your money back.?
?Everyone?s situation is going to be different,? Banas added, ?but if you?re flexible and can postpone your trip, it?s much better to be safe than sorry.?
George Hobica, the founder of Airfarewatchdog.com, said waiting for a flight cancellation could help travelers get a refund. ?The problem with proactively changing the travel date oneself is that chances are you won?t want to take the same itinerary at a later date,? he said. ?The vacation is over, the wedding has taken place, the meeting was canceled.?
Hobica added that online travel agencies such as Expedia or Travelocity can be helpful in instances like this. ?Typically call wait times are much shorter than with airline 800 numbers when there?s a crisis,? he said.
Travelers should expect long wait times when calling an airline.
American Airlines warned its customers on Friday via Twitter: ?Due to #HurricaneIrene, we're experiencing long hold times. Thx for your patience, pls check your travel status: bit.ly/AASTATUS.?
You can monitor airlines? Twitter feeds for up-to-the-minute updates. Here are the links to the Twitter pages of most major carriers:
And here are a few more helpful links to bookmark:
Airlines: Weather updates, flight changes, fee waivers
Airport status and flight-delay information
Ground transportation
Others
More on Hurricane Irene from msnbc.com
Information from Reuters was included in this report.
Joe Myxter has been running msnbc.com's Travel section since 2006. Follow him on Twitter.
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