Travelers frustrated by delays, cancellations at airports across the country

BOSTON — Lisa Kircher is one of thousands of travelers frustrated with delays and cancellations at airports across the country this holiday weekend.

Kircher and her husband were coming to Boston from Cincinnati this weekend.

“Logan Airport was crowded with too many flights coming in, and they were backed up and we didn’t have enough fuel to hover in the air, so we ended up going to Norfolk, Virginia,” said Kircher.

After their flight was diverted to Virginia, she says they were stuck in the airport for four hours, waiting to fly back out, but they couldn’t get a flight until the next morning.

“There were some older people, and they were like what’s happening, and we were like, you have to go find a hotel - get on your phone to find a hotel,” said Kircher.

Kircher says their new flight the next day was also delayed about two hours.

“We were supposed to leave at 9:45 a.m., and our flight attendant crew wasn’t able to get there until 9:45 because of their time off rules,” said Kircher.

Airlines blame the cancellations this weekend on severe weather and staffing shortages.

“We are not staffed appropriately for this summer flying,” said Captain Evan Baach, a Delta Airlines pilot.

Delta Airlines pilots say they’re being overworked to accommodate the summer travel demand even as the airline cancels flights.

Delta says they’re cancelling about 100 flights daily this summer to try and minimize schedule disruptions.

“We don’t have enough pilots, and the company is scheduling more flights than they can fly,” said Baach.

The TSA says more than 2 million people went through security checkpoints Friday, making this the busiest travel weekend at airports so far this year.

A lot of travelers are hoping they don’t see the same delays and cancellations for the rest of the summer.

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