Philadelphia snow means travel delays, cancellations at PHL

SOUTH PHILADELPHIA - In the aftermath of the first snowstorm in nearly two years, travel troubles for fliers coming in and out of Philadelphia, as a ground stop temporarily halted incoming flights from 11:30 Tuesday morning through 2 p.m.

So far, 135 flights have been canceled and 270 delayed, according to flight tracking website Flight Aware. Some of those delayed passengers include Eagles fans, as if they don’t already have enough to be upset about.

Travelers at the Philadelphia International Airport were greeted by a board full of delays and cancellations.

"My flight got cancelled, it was a 6 p.m. flight. Every other airline is taking off so, now I’m supposed to be going to Chicago, that flight got delayed," says Daryl Diebold, of Indianapolis.

After taking a day trip to Philly for work meetings Diebold found himself becoming best friends with his airline app, in hopes it won’t show more delays for his trip back home to Indianapolis.

"Which is crazy because the weather is not as bad here as it was in Indiana, that doesn’t make sense," says Diebold.

Officials from PHL say this afternoon they had 115 cancellations and about 250 delays.

"There were weather patterns, weather systems in other places earlier this week that really impacted flights being able to get into PHL," says Heather Redfern, the Public Affairs Manager for PHL.

Some of those delayed flights were loaded with Eagles’ fans just trying to leave Tampa after the teams miserable performance against the Buccaneers.

"We’ve been at the airport since like 7 a.m., just waiting until they were going to let us come back, it’s been a long day," says a woman traveling from Tampa. That’s an understatement, as her flight was supposed to arrive in Philly at around noon but didn’t make it until after 6 p.m.

"Everybody had good spirits today, actually everybody was still hanging out," says Steve Grosscup.

Eagles’ fans were doing more than hanging out, they were partying at the Tampa International Airport during the delay.

"There was a little airport party in the Tampa Terminal E, and security was only called a couple of times, we had a pretty rowdy time over there," says Chris Nady.

Philly folks wouldn’t expect anything less.

Despite the Eagle’s heartbreak and the long delays, they made the best of it.

Connor Edie says, "Everyone was great, fans on both sides. Obviously a very disappointing game, but it was still great to go down there and at least get out of the cold."