Hundreds stranded at OIA after multiple flight cancellations

Severe storms, staffing shortages and traffic left hundreds of people stranded at Orlando International Airport throughout the weekend and into Monday.Multiple flights have been canceled. “The delay was frustrating. Now that we know we’re here, we’re OK,” Elaine Merkel said. “We just walked in, looked at the departure board and there it was, canceled!” Ken and Melany Robertson said.OIA says the weather in the northeast along with busy travel days are causing back-ups in the air and on the ground. “In the airport for over 36 hours – in the airport totally between San Juan’s airport and here,” Cece Werner and Joe Finnell said. “We had to rent a car again which was way more than the week before because spring break,” Ken and Melany Robertson said.Some passengers were in the boarding line when they learned their plane would no longer take off. “We’re in college and we didn’t spring break our sophomore and junior year of college and so this is like our first big one and it’s just like a bad experience,” Werner and Finnell said.With spring break season in full swing, the airport screened more than 80,000 passengers on Saturday, exceeding the number recorded in March 2020. “It’s been really stressful. I mean he was supposed to go to school tomorrow, he’s not able to go because we won’t land until midnight so I’m not going to make him go to school,” Talisha Royal said.Some people missed their flight after waiting in long lines. “So I came here Friday night. I arrive two hours before my flight even though I’m TSA prechecked. They had shut down the TSA line and the line for people waiting to go through security actually came well past the Chick-Fil-A,” Demetries Grimes said.”Makes you not want to fly very badly but you have to so,” the Robertsons said.Passengers are advised to check with their airline directly for any updates about their flight. The airport is expecting to see busier days ahead with Easter approaching. Orlando International says this Spring Break period should be much busier than last year: 35% more people coming through the airport, which works out to more than seven million people over the two-month period.

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