CHARLOTTE, N.C. —As the federal government shutdown carries on, flights continue to face delays and cancellations amid staffing shortages.These impacts are being felt here in North Carolina. On Saturday, a ground stop was issued at several airports, including Charlotte Douglas International Airport. This caused record delays with reports of more than 400 flights impacted.Impacts were still being felt Sunday.Iven King, a D.J. from Charlotte, took a trip up to Washington, D.C., over the weeken...
CHARLOTTE, N.C. —
As the federal government shutdown carries on, flights continue to face delays and cancellations amid staffing shortages.
These impacts are being felt here in North Carolina. On Saturday, a ground stop was issued at several airports, including Charlotte Douglas International Airport. This caused record delays with reports of more than 400 flights impacted.
Impacts were still being felt Sunday.
Iven King, a D.J. from Charlotte, took a trip up to Washington, D.C., over the weekend for work. He was on his way to the airport saturday, when his flight was hit with a 30 minute delay initially, which then became an hour and a half delay.
"We get to TSA and get a notification while we're eating," King said. "Now we're close to two and a half hours. Then it went back back to hour and a half, and then a few minutes later, we're at a three hour delay."
Luckily, his return trip wasn’t that bad. It’s a similar story for Florence Omoregie, who was waiting to get on her flight back home to new jersey.
"I got an email around 9 a.m. this morning, saying that there was a one hour delay," she said. "I did speak to other people who had, you know, worst experiences. Their flights were three, four hours delays."
Still, some people were lucky. Dr. Anthony Bleyer of Wake Forest School of Medicine and his daughter say their flight was unaffected.
"I was really worried," he said. "Because I saw on the news that Houston International Airport, the lines were tremendous, and that there were problems in Charlotte. So we got to the airport early, and to our surprise, it was very smooth, no lines at all."
With thanksgiving now two and a half weeks away, air travelers everywhere are hoping things return to normal as soon as possible.
On Sunday, more than 1,000 flights have been canceled so far, according to FlightAware.
Here's a look at flight cancellations and delays at North Carolina airports as of 6 p.m., according to FlightAware:
Delays: 319
Cancellations: 97
Delays: 149
Cancellations: 43
Delays: 22
Cancellations: 22
These flight concerns come as the busy holiday travel period approaches, with Thanksgiving less than three weeks away.