FORT LAUDERDALE-HOLLYWOOD INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, FLA. (WSVN) - Delays and cancellations are still filling the information boards in South Florida airports on Sunday after Friday’s nationwide ground stop.
While the residual effects of the four-hour long restriction lessen, delays in Miami International Airport and Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport remain in the hundreds.
Cancellations at the two airports are almost at 100 each as of Sunday afternoon.
“If we can’t get a flight, we’re going to take a bus back to Orlando,” said a traveler at FLL.
While many passengers are left stranded as they wait for a flight, some are trying to make the best of it.
“Actually, it hasn’t been bad,” said a flyer. “We’ve been pretty lucky so far. We just got off the cruise ship, so half hour delay. It’s not too bad.”
Some travelers share that their airlines have been communicative throughout this ordeal.
“The people at American [Airlines] so far do seem to be trying to help us,” said an impacted passenger.
But other people are trying to find different ways to get home, like taking rental cars or flights landing in airports further from their destination.
“We flew from Peru,” said a traveler. “We knew when we got on the plane in Peru, ’cause it was delayed three hours, that we weren’t make our flight. Then we got here. And we wait in line about two hours. We contact American Airlines, and they told us ‘Go rent a car.’ But there’s no rental cars available here. So, now we’re trying to drive back to Savannah.”
The situation in MIA is the same as in FLL.
“Now we got to drive 17 hours to get home,” said a traveler at MIA. “…Tired. Aggravated. Angry. Disappointed. All of these things.”
Nearby hotels are packed too, making it tougher for families who are stuck in South Florida for a few days.
“We were actually able to get up with American earlier, and they were gonna put us in a hotel for one night, but we have to call back again to be able to get an additional night,” said the impacted passenger. “They can only do one night at a time.”
Federal officials say they’re working to get to the bottom of what caused the issues that led them to ground all planes in the country/
In the meantime, people simply want to get home.
“We hope everybody gets home where they need to be,” said a traveler.
Officials say air travel should recover from the ground stop by the end of day Sunday.
Passengers are encouraged to check their flight status with their airline before heading to the airport as delays and cancelations could continue to Sunday.
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