Mark Granberry and his wife Charla had a Caribbean getaway planned to celebrate her recent retirement. Instead of a beach vacation in Turks and Caicos, the Heath couple has been stranded in Charlotte’s busy airport since Saturday morning — caught up in the latest chaotic weekend for travelers.
“You plan a vacation and I guess you just don’t expect this,” Granberry said.
Thousands of travelers were again stranded at airports in Dallas, Charlotte, Miami and elsewhere around the country as American Airlines struggled all weekend to catch up with flight delays and cancellations that started as far back as last Thursday, when high winds in North Texas closed runways for periods at the airline’s biggest hub, DFW International Airport.
By Sunday, the Fort Worth-based airline had called off over 2,000 flights. More than 1,000 flights had been canceled by 7 p.m. Sunday alone and another 365 were delayed. About 100,000 American Airlines passengers were affected by Sunday’s slowdown, on top of 80,000 inconvenienced on Saturday.
It follows a similar weekend in early October when Southwest Airlines canceled 3,100 flights over four days, as well as similar problems over the summer that plagued American and Spirit airlines. A pilots union spokesman said airlines’ inability to quickly recover from short-lived weather events raises even bigger concerns.
“It’s days like today that affirm our concern for the winter holiday schedule,” said Dennis Tajer, spokesman for the Allied Pilots Association, which represents American Airlines pilots. “Management’s failure to quickly recover the airline after a storm is creating holiday travel uncertainty.”