Thousands of airline passengers are scrambling after a series of flight delays and spring break holiday cancellations Travel Plan over the weekend.
flight tracking website FlightAware Reports said that as of Sunday morning, a total of 3,410 flights have been canceled and 8,851 flights delayed across the country. Of these disruptions, 33 cancellations and 215 delays were domestic flights to or from San Francisco, 17 cancellations and 101 delays were in or out of Oakland, resulting in missed weddings, baseball games and trips to Disney worldNot to mention the long waits as weary travelers tried to reach customer service.
“Yesterday was the biggest impact day for us,” said Bob Rutsky, airport duty manager at San Francisco International Airport. “This weekend was a busy one, which is great to see, but we also saw a lot of kids on spring break from school and noticed some frantic escorts making them all check in.”
He estimated that nearly 58,000 passengers were traveling through the airport over the weekend and noticed a lot of long queues, but he attributed them to high travel demand as COVID-19 case rates drop and people feel safe flying.
“It’s peak travel period, but airlines are doing a good job of getting the word out and getting people out as fast as they can,” Rutsky said.
Southwest Airlines was hit hard over the weekend, according to FlightAware data, which reported 986 flight cancellations and 2,303 flight delays across the country. Most of those flights were from Orlando, Miami and Tampa, where the airline said its “continuing weather challenges” were “affecting multiple areas within our system,” leaving it with no choice but to shut down its services early Saturday morning because it “succeeded” to resolve a technical issue. intermittent,” according to statment on its website.
The National Weather Service issued a severe thunderstorm watch and a heavy fog warning over the weekend.
“We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience, and will continue to work with customers who experience disruption to their travel plans,” the airline said.
Passengers attempting to board flights on Saturday and Sunday are given the option to rebook a new flight within 14 days of the original departure date without paying an additional fee. Those whose flights have been canceled have also been told they can request a refund.
This isn’t the first time Southwest has placed restrictions on its passengers’ travel plans. last octoberThousands of flights were canceled and delayed, due to weather-related challenges that began at Florida airports, which were later exacerbated by unexpected air traffic control issues in the same area.
Other airlines, including Spirit Airlines, American Airlines and JetBlue, have also reported significant cancellations and delays during the busy spring holiday weekend.
A JetBlue spokesperson said in statment. “We unfortunately had to cancel flights this weekend, and today’s cancellations will help us reset our operations and get our crews and aircraft back to their locations safely. We apologize to our customers for the inconvenience and are working to get them on their way as quickly as possible.”