El verbo "Acabar"

Question

Hola:

Esta frase me confunde:
"Stansted acabó cancelando casi todos sus vuelos."
[NB Stansted is the name of an airport near London, for those who don't know.]

I know that 'acabar' can be used like: "to have just done/finished something", eg, acabo de comer = I have just eaten.

But there's no "de" here.

At first I thought the translation could be:
A] Stansted finished cancelling nearly all its flights.

Which could mean:
i] Stansted finished the process of cancelling all its flights [because there were no flights left to cancel]
ii] Stansted finished the process of cancelling (more) flights [because cancellation was no longer necessary]

On second thought, I wondered whether the translation was:
B] Stansted closed, cancelling nearly all its flights

Which could mean:
Stansted finished working for the day {comma} cancelling nearly all its flights [by way of description for it finishing].

Qué piensas? A, B, or something else..?

Perhaps I should just move on, but it's bugging me.

Gracias,
Martyn.

Answer 1

This construction (called periphrasis) is different from "terminar de", which is "to finish" (plus an action). When "terminar" is followed by a "gerundio", it means "ended up". Maybe I'll write one little article about periphrases one of these days, because people seem to be unaware of their existence, and attempt literal translation.

Answer 2

Por favor. Debo decirlo en inglés para estar absolutamente sigura de haber exspreso tan que me parece importante: Please do!
Sería (

Answer 3

I'd seen "to use up", and "to end", but they didn't fit.

Had I seen "to end up" further down the dictionary page, I would have used it, as it's good fit in the context of the rest of the source paragraph.

Thanks.

Answer 4

It means "Stansted ended up canceling nearly all its flights."