While the weather outside is delightful locally, arctic climates elsewhere in the country are continuing to thwart travel plans nationwide – including at San Diego International Airport (SAN).
As of 1 p.m. Saturday, 46 flights were delayed and 15 were canceled either to or from San Diego, according to the airport’s flight status.
This comes as thousands of flights across the country remain grounded amid frigid temperatures brought upon much of the Midwest to an arctic blast from Canada. Other parts of the U.S. are facing below-average temperatures during the Christmas weekend.
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Travel Troubles
The travel woes are the last thing many passengers wanted to deal with during the holiday weekend. Frustrated travelers at SAN were left scrambling for plans and immediately sought alternative flights.
Dan Vandever told NBC 7 on Saturday that he and his wife endured a rough morning amid the troubles. The couple ultimately had to rebook their flight to Wisconsin.
“It’s just been a nightmare,” Vandever said. “We went through security through one gate. Go to get our flight figured out. It’s all cancelled; there’s no availability. We found a new flight on the fly. Get out of there and come over here to check in on our next destination.”
Severe weather has been impacting flights since earlier this week. On Thursday, San Diego resident Marco Romero also encountered issues with his travel plans to get to South Dakota.
“I was about 10 minutes away from here and I got the message that my flight was canceled,” Romero said. “They told me I had to reschedule it.”
While the weather has put a damper on many people’s holiday plans, it’s also ruined plans for asylum seekers.
Nixon Atagabo from Cameroon has been trying to get to Ohio after being released from detention on Friday. He wanted to avoid traveling on Christmas Day but it was the only viable option for him.
“They said there were no flights for two days, so we booked for Sunday,” he said.
The Federal Aviation Administration said schedules peaked at 47,554 flights on Thursday, dropping to 30,875 on Saturday and just 27,997 on Sunday, Christmas Day.
