Scott Mayerowitz , The Associated Press

NEW YORK -- Fears of a jet fuel shortage at New York's airports have led some airlines to take the unusual — and costly — step of putting extra fuel on inbound planes.

The worries follow Superstorm Sandy, which has disrupted Northeast fuel supplies and power.

US Airways, Southwest Airlines, and Republic Airlines are among the carriers loading up with extra fuel to allow their planes to fly out again.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the airports, says despite the airlines' actions, there is "an adequate supply." It refused to elaborate.

Other airlines, including American Airlines and Spirit Airlines, have chosen not to add extra fuel to inbound flights.

New York's three major airports were closed for several days following Sandy. All had re-opened by Thursday morning. 

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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The Associated Press

DALLAS -- American Airlines is offering double-mile promotions as a way of apologizing for recent delays and cancellations.

The airline announced the offer under its AAdvantage program on Friday. One will run through Dec. 31, the other around Thanksgiving.

"Our recent operating performance was not up to our standards ... and for that, we are deeply sorry," Suzanne L. Rubin, president of the airline's AAdvantage frequent-flier program, said in a message to customers.

In September, American canceled nearly 1,400 flights, and only 59 percent of its flights arrived on time compared with at least 85 percent at rivals Delta, Southwest and US Airways, according to tracking service FlightStats.com. The airline, which imposed pay and benefit cuts for pilots in early September, accused some pilots of conducting an illegal work slowdown.

American announced two offers:

• Elite-level customers, who start at 25,000 miles in a year, will get double miles through Dec. 31.
  
• Other passengers will get double miles from Nov. 16 through Nov. 26.
  
• Both groups can get double credit toward elite status on flights through the end of the year.
  

The offers cover flights on American and regional affiliates American Eagle and American Connection but not flights operated by so-called code-sharing partner airlines.

American and parent AMR Corp. filed for bankruptcy protection in November 2011. 

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The Associated Press

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- The Little Rock airport was closed for about an hour and a half Thursday as authorities investigated a suspicious suitcase.

A bomb-sniffing dog alerted on the bag, which turned out not to contain any explosive material, but the investigation led officials to halt departing flights briefly at the Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport, spokesman Shane Carter said.

Four flights were canceled and an evacuation forced hundreds of people from the airport as passengers waiting for departing flights were escorted out, Carter said. Passengers on arriving flights were also escorted away from the terminal while authorities investigated the bag, Carter said.

The bag had apparently been at the airport since Wednesday night, Little Rock Fire Department Capt. Jason Weaver said.

A bomb-sniffing dog alerted on it during a sweep Thursday afternoon, prompting authorities to X-ray the bag, which was in a luggage-holding area, Weaver said. It contained personal items, but Weaver said investigators planned to swab it to figure out what the dog was reacting to.

"It may have been exposed to something in the past," Weaver said, adding that no one was in danger Thursday. 

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Stephanie Nebehay , Reuters

GENEVA -- International passenger traffic rose 4.9 percent in September on a year ago, led by robust growth for carriers in China, Latin America and the Middle East, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said on Friday.

A two-speed recovery is emerging in the industry, as European airlines experience "profitless growth" and North American airlines operate in a "slow to no-growth environment", it said.

International air freight traffic was up by 0.5 percent versus the same month in 2011, the Geneva-based body said.

Copyright 2012 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

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World's airlines collecting $36 billion in a la carte fees this year, report shows

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A. Pawlowski, NBC News contributor , NBC News

Allison Joyce / Getty Images

A sailboat sails past the Statue of Liberty on October 31 in New York City. Lady Liberty appears to have made it through Superstorm Sandy unharmed. "An initial assessment has indicated that the statue itself ... is fine," a National Park Service spokesperson said.

As New York recovers from Superstorm Sandy, two of the city’s most iconic landmarks are closed until further notice, the victims of the hurricane’s powerful storm surge.

Liberty Island -- home to the Statue of Liberty -- and Ellis Island -- where millions of immigrants once arrived in their quest to find a better life in America -- have sustained water damage and there is no power on either island, said Mindi Rambo, a spokeswoman for the National Parks of New York Harbor.

Related: Staten Island reels from devastation

The good news: Lady Liberty appears to have made it through the storm unharmed.

“An initial assessment has indicated that the statue itself, from the base to the torch, is fine,” Rambo said.

The grounds were apparently flooded, however. A national team is scheduled to arrive in New York on Friday to perform a full assessment, so officials won’t know the full extent of the damage until that process is completed.

Video: Aid on the way for ‘forgotten borough’

“Currently, the islands are closed for the foreseeable future. Until the assessment is done, we cannot determine when both islands will reopen,” Rambo said.

Maintenance crews have a huge challenge in pumping water and clearing debris from the islands, according to information posted on the Statue of Liberty National Monument’s Facebook page earlier this week.

The docks and grounds are in "bad shape," a source told NBC New York.

Liberty Island and Ellis Island have occasionally been closed in the past because of severe weather, but the National Park Service doesn’t have data on how often that happens, so it’s hard to gauge how rare such closures are, Rambo said.

“Right now, we need to take this one step at a time and our first step is to make sure that all the parks employees are safe and are OK going forward,” she added.

It’s a distressing turn of events for the National Park Service, which reopened the Statue of Liberty crown just Sunday after a year of renovations. Visitors eager to see magnificent views of the Big Apple and get a glimpse of the famous monument’s inner workings have been snapping up tickets for the attraction.

They’re out of luck – at least for now. The monument had to be closed the next day as Hurricane Sandy arrived, and it never reopened.

People who have reserved tickets to visit the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island can contact State Cruises, the official ferry transportation provider, for rescheduling and refund information. Call 1-877-LADYTIX or e-mail info@statuecruises.com.

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Air New Zealand

Peter Jackson.

Passengers on Air New Zealand won't be sitting through a very dull safety video -- instead they'll see a clip that features Gollum crawling through the aisles and Peter Jackson finding the One Ring on the cabin floor.

PHOTOS: The Hard Road to "The Hobbit"

The airline company has debuted a Middle Earth inspired safety clip that was produced in partnership with Weta Workshop, which created the special effects for the "Lord of the Rings" films and the forthcoming "Hobbit" prequels.

COVER STORY: "The Hobbit": Inside Peter Jackson and Warner Bros.' $1 Billion Gamble

"To have Gollum step off the movie screen for the first time and into an Air New Zealand aircraft is incredibly special and Sir Peter Jackson delivers a superb cameo," said Mike Tod, Air New Zealand's General Manager of Marketing and Communications, in a press release. 

The "Rings" films have been filmed in New Zealand, and the country has capitalized on the franchise's popularity, calling itself the "Home of Middle Earth" on its official tourism site. 

Watch the video!

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• Evan Rachel Wood marries Jamie Bell
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Brendan Smialowski / AFP - Getty Images

People board the NY Waterways ferry with the Manhattan skyline in the background Nov. 1, 2012 in Hoboken, New Jersey.

Seth Wenig / AP

Commuters wait in a line to board busses into Manhattan in front of the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, Thursday, Nov. 1, 2012. The line stretched twice around the arena and commuters reported wait times of one to three hours to get on a bus.

Andrew Gombert / EPA

Commuters wait in line to board buses to Manhattan outside the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, Nov. 1.

Andrew Gombert / EPA

Commuters wait in line to board buses to Manhattan outside the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, Nov. 1.

Andrew Gombert / EPA

Commuters cram onto a bus to Manhattan outside the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, Nov. 1.

Jason Decrow / AP

Motorists sit in heavy traffic while crossing the Robert F. Kennedy Triboro Bridge during the morning rush, Thursday, Nov. 1, 2012, in the Queens borough of New York.

Richard Drew / AP

Morning commuters ride a downtown-bound, west side subway train toward New York's Times Square, Thursday, Nov. 1, 2012. New York City moved closer to resuming its frenetic pace by getting back some of its vital subways.

CX Matiash / AP

A timetable board displays continued cancellations at Penn Station in New York as MTA resumed limited service on Thursday, Nov. 1, 2012.

Commuters heading into New York City from the five boroughs faced a longer commute than normal, with long lines, crowded buses, trains and highways. Though some subway service was restored, much of lower Manhattan was still without power and without service. Many of the bridges and tunnels were reopened, but not all, and commuters were faced with a new rule for drivers - cars crossing into Manhattan must carry three passengers. Tolls and fares were suspended in order to encourage people to take public transportation following the gridlock on Wednesday. New Jersey Transit was shut down as were many train lines running through Penn Station, one of the biggest transportation hubs in the area, which remained virtually empty. Full story

Video: Traffic snarl seen in aerial view of New York

Video: ‘Unwatering’ team is drying NYC subway tunnels

Video: Northeast airports reopen with limited service

/

Superstorm Sandy made landfall Monday evening on a destructive and deadly path across the Northeast.

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A. Pawlowski, NBC News contributor , NBC News

Video: Northeast airports reopen with limited service

Days after Superstorm Sandy turned flying into a waiting game, airports into hotels and runways into rivers, travelers are on the move again as the word “canceled” began disappearing from flight status boards.

All three New York-area airports are finally back in service and gradually returning to normal.

LaGuardia reopened on Thursday morning after flooding from Sandy forced its closure at the height of the storm, with water right up to the jet bridges. Carriers will be providing limited service, the Port Authority of New York New Jersey cautioned.

“It’s been a mess here over the last few days and today, it’s going to be slow going,” NBC News’ Tom Costello said on the TODAY show.

“The airlines have to fly planes in before they can fly planes out … (and) a big problem has been getting the employees to the airport because many employees have been stuck.”

John F. Kennedy International and Newark International are open for a second day, but flight service is still not fully restored and varies by carrier. If you have a flight scheduled at any of the New York-area airports, officials are strongly urging you to check the status with your airline before heading out.

Airlines canceled about 600 flights on Thursday, according to FlightAware.com. That’s relatively few compared to earlier in the week when thousands of flights were being scrubbed each day. In all, carriers have canceled about 20,000 flights since Sunday, when the storm began to menace the Northeast.

"Barring any unforeseen airport damage or operational issues, such as the ability for staff to get to the airport, road warriors should pretty much be back in business on Monday," said Rick Seaney, CEO of FareCompare.com.

"The trend in cancellations since Monday is a hockey stick in the downward direction."

Delta is near its full usual schedule at JFK International on Thursday and expects to operate 50 percent of its schedule at LaGuardia.

United has increased its operations at JFK International and Newark Liberty and is offering limited flights at LaGuardia.

American Airlines is flying a full schedule at JFK and about 70 percent of its schedule at LaGuardia and Newark. The carrier is also operating additional flights into JFK to help passengers impacted by cancellations earlier in the week.

JetBlue is operating 80 percent of its total schedule, aiming to return to 100 percent by Saturday. All JetBlue flights originally scheduled to depart from LaGuardia on Thursday will depart instead from JFK International. The airline expects to resume service at LaGuardia on Friday.

Getting around in New York remains a problem as the city struggles to restore subway service. To avoid gridlock in the Big Apple, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has declared a transportation emergency and announced that fares on all mass transit will be suspended for Thursday and Friday.

Related: Commuters face obstacles and long lines in New York

“We want to get people back to work, but we are asking our customers for patience and understanding as they confront crowding and long lines as we repair our system,” said Joseph Lhota, chairman and CEO of New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

“Be flexible about your travel times. We have come a long way in a short time to repair the damage from the most devastating event to strike our transportation system.”

Limited subway service began in the Big Apple on Thursday morning, but there is almost no subway activity below 34th Street, Costello said.

“That has been a real problem for folks in New York City,” he added. “If you are driving into Manhattan, the mayor has ordered that you cannot be in a car with fewer than three people.”

Meanwhile, car rental companies are reporting unusual activity in the wake of the storm, with travelers desperate to get moving.

“It’s people saying, ‘I’m stuck, I’ve got to get out of here’,” said Richard Broome, a spokesman for Hertz.

The company estimates it will have rented 10,000 cars one-way from the storm-affected area, compared to a few hundred -- at most -- reservations of this type at this time of the year, Broome said. It means lots of people are picking up a car at one location and dropping it off at another far

“For this kind of activity, you only see it during truly catastrophic events. Major natural disasters and, for example, 9/11,” Broome said.

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Brian Hamacher , NBC6.com

Four workers were hospitalized after they fell from a scissor lift at Miami International Airport Wednesday morning, aviation and fire rescue officials said.

The workers, employees of Commercial Jet, were doing maintenance work on an airplane inside their hangar when they fell, Miami-Dade Aviation spokesman Greg Chin said.

All four were taken to a nearby hospital but one of the employees had a more serious injury than the others, Chin said.

Miami-Dade Fire Rescue officials confirmed the injuries but didn't give any other details.

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