GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARBULLETIN.COM
Postal worker Samson Winchester sorted some of the
130,000 pounds of mail that arrived yesterday at the
U.S. Postal facility at Honolulu Airport via chartered
flight. Backlogs in mail delivery are expected
to clear in the next few days.

Mail traffic slowly
resumes normal flow

The backlog begins to clear after
the FAA allows commercial airlines
to carry mail

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By B.J. Reyes
breyes@starbulletin.com

Most outgoing mail no longer is affected, but Hawaii residents expecting letters or packages from the mainland might still experience some delay in service as postal operations slowly return to normal across the country, officials said.

Mail flow was expected to improve after the Federal Aviation Administration yesterday resumed the shipment of letters on commercial airlines. The aviation system was virtually shut down after the terrorist attacks last week.

"Our operation is as normal as it can be here locally," said Felice Broglio, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Postal Service in Hawaii.

Broglio said there was some backlog in outgoing mail, "but now, because we can start shipping the letter class (on airlines), we should be clearing that out in a day or so."

GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARBULLETIN.COM
Postal worker Llory Asentista sorted some of the
130,000 pounds of mail that arrived yesterday.

Some international mail might also be delayed. The postal service, in a news release posted on its Web site, said it is sending mail overseas based on the availability of outbound international flights.

Hawaii, Alaska and Puerto Rico, because they are accessible primarily by air, were granted special permission to resume limited air service late last week, postal officials said.

Mail coming into Hawaii resumed Saturday, but had been limited to one cargo plane shipment a day, Broglio said.

Additionally, some mail returned to the air Thursday on Federal Express, which has a contract to fly about 3 million pounds daily.

"It should get increasingly better, but were still working on increasing the amount of (incoming) cargo flights," Broglio said.

The postal service usually receives about 200,000 pounds of incoming mail a day, but beginning with Saturday's shipments it was only getting about 120,000 pounds, Broglio said.

"The best thing we can do is ask everybody to be patient," Broglio said. "The mail is coming through, it's just a matter of time."

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The Associated Press contributed to this report.