Delta Air Lines sent an extra, unscheduled flight Tuesday to Honduras to help customers escape Hurricane Felix, which struck the Central American country as a fearsome Category 5 storm.
The Atlanta-based airline, the nation’s third-largest, said it has more than 100 customers in Honduras who had been scheduled to remain there until Saturday, said spokesman Andy McDill. Felix was projected to rake central Honduras, slam into Guatemala and then cut across southern Mexico, well south of Texas.
McDill said the evacuated passengers were expected to return Tuesday afternoon to Atlanta.
The airline had to abandon original plans to pick up passengers directly from Roatan after the hurricane forced the local government to close the airport there and evacuate the island.
Instead, Delta said it planned to pick up passengers from the inland airport at San Pedro Sula, about 90 miles southwest of Roatan Island.
Gary Edwards, director of Delta’s operations center, said that although 127 passengers had booked a ride on the extra flight Monday night, only 68 opted Tuesday to take the return flight home because the winds in the Roatan Island vicinity had decreased.
“Any customers we have down there were completely stranded until Saturday, and that’s unacceptable,” Edwards said.
Delta used a Boeing (nyse: BA - news - people ) 737-800 to pick up the passengers. Edwards said no Delta flights were canceled because of the extra plane.
Delta has a weekly flight on Saturday from Roatan Island in the Central American country.
Hours before the hurricane hit, Grupo Taca Airlines frantically airlifted tourists from Roatan, which is popular for its pristine reefs and diving resorts. The U.S. Southern Command said in a statement that a Chinook helicopter evacuated 19 U.S. citizens, including tourists and members of U.S. Joint Task Force-Bravo who were visiting the island.
Another 1,000 people were removed from low-lying coastal areas and smaller islands. Delta said Monday that it has been contacting those who provided cell phone numbers to alert them of the extra flight, and local airport personnel were contacting hotels.
