Philadelphia Int'l sees massive delays during busiest July 4th travel weekend
SOUTH PHILADELPHIA - Delays are mounting at Philadelphia International Airport, with 115 flights delayed and 21 canceled. This weekend, preceding the 4th of July, is expected to be the most traveled on record.
"I took a $250 cab to get here, because everything was locked down. Shut down," traveler Danny Mishek stated.
"I think I have a booked flight for Friday. Three days from now," Antonio Romero commented.
"We were in line here for about an hour and 15 minutes," Gary Bussell said.
Long waits, expensive change of plans and lots of waiting around has swept through American airports and Philadelphia is far from exempt.
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"The airlines and passengers alike are playing catch-up," Jana Tidwell, AAA spokesperson, said.
Tidwell says a perfect storm, literal and figurative, have collided to cause massive delays during what they project to be the nation’s busiest July 4th weekend of travel, ever. "We’re seeing a backlog from the ground stoppage that occurred the other night in Philadelphia as a result of storms, plus already existing delays and cancelations, weather related, up and down the East Coast."
Danny Mishek coughed up serious dough to get a cab ride to Philadelphia after his Newark flight back to the Twin Cities was canceled at the gate and he couldn’t find another flight out. "There’s no one-way rental cars, there’s nothing! I thought the best way to get away from the congestion was to get here, then I’m going, from here, to Detroit, Detroit to O’Hare, O’Hare to Minneapolis, hopefully by tomorrow."
He’s not the only one. Gary Bussell and his wife have been trying to get back home to Phoenix for two days. He said options are practically non-existent.
"There’s nothing. I probably checked 50 or 60 airports and there was nothing. So, that’s as much control as I have over it," Bussell explained.
Tidwell says the summer weather delays are real and can be just as debilitating to airlines as a large, winter snowstorm. "When you have a ground stoppage, thunder lightning and pretty intense wind gusts and tornado warnings, those planes need to stop where they are or be rerouted."
That stoppage creates a domino effect, Tidwell says, and leaves many passengers left holding the bag.