DAYTON — Thousands of travelers are still impacted by Friday’s nationwide ground stop at airports across the country.
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As reported on News Center 7 at 6 and 11, the FAA lifted its national ground stop on Friday night.
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Aviation experts say delays should get better.
But the delays have worn out travelers.
“It’s just been exhausting, that’s all I can say,” said Kamahinaonawai Popelman.
She is just relieved to be home.
“I’m just glad and happy to be away from the planes. It’s like, okay, I don’t have to worry about when’s the next flight,” said Popelman.
She dealt with cancellations and delays from Little Rock, Arkansas.
“At 11 last night, I decided to get a hotel,” said Popelman. “And my app had rebooked me. So I was like, okay, I have hope.”
Many hotels near Dayton International Airport told News Center 7’s Ava Petrosky that they did not have people booking last-minute rooms.
But the airport car rental counters saw people scrambling to get last-minute cars to drive to their destination.
Ryan Smith was also impacted.
“So, I was supposed to leave at 9 a.m.,” he said. “That flight got totally canceled. And then another flight was, I say, 11, but that was easily overbooked.”
Smith hopes to make it home to Texas before going on vacation on Sunday night.
“It’s like hurry up, get home, pack, and hopefully flights are still on schedule,” said Smith. “I’m flying to California.”
He said if worse comes to worst, he will drive.
Former News Center 7 reporter Sean Cudahy is a senior aviation reporter with Point Sky.
He says the air travel system is complicated.
“The airlines will sometimes take a day like today as kind of their reset day and basically cancel a ton of flights, get the planes back in the right places, get the crews back in their right places,” said Cudahy.
He said that the delays and cancelations people experienced are normal and predicts they’re going to get better.
“Tomorrow will be better than today. Monday will be. I imagine as we get into the beginning of the week here, things are going to look pretty normal.”
Cudahy says everything should be running smoothly by Thanksgiving.
He said it’s busy travel season, but advises travelers to monitor their travel app to stay updated when delays or cancellations happen.
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