Hundreds of flight delays at NYC airports on Memorial Day. Here's what travelers dealt with.
NEW YORK -- Strong storms made Memorial Day travel difficult for people flying to and from the New York City area after a long weekend.
Early Tuesday morning, there were still dozens of delays at LaGuardia, Kennedy and Newark airports.
The delays were anywhere from one to three hours Monday, and continued even after skies cleared.
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Memorial Day flights delayed in New York and New Jersey
The flight board at LaGuardia showed a few cancellations, but just about every other flight was delayed when the afternoon storms ended.
Eventually, some fliers made it home.
"We did connecting flights and it was delayed by like an hour 45," said Nicole Coaxum, from Yonkers.
"We had a little bit of a delay because of weather, but I was warned about that ahead of time yesterday so I could have switched if I wanted to," said Barbara Kingsborough, of Mount Kisco.
It didn't help that more people chose to fly this Memorial Day weekend. TSA set a record for the number of travelers screened in a single day on Friday.
According to AAA, 3.5 million Americans flew somewhere for the holiday weekend, up 5% from last year and more than 9% since 2019.
AAA estimated 2.5 million New Yorkers drove to and from their destinations, the most in over two decades.
"The most awful flight I've ever had"
Melanie Cade finally made it to New York for a family trip from Alabama.
"We love New York, we absolutely love New York. I cannot wait to have a street hot dog," Cade said.
Cade, a mother of nine and the creator of "Raising Cades" on TikTok, said the trip was anything but easy.
"It was the most awful flight I've ever had. We've flown to New York quite a few times, but it took us, what should've been a two-hour flight, because they went around the weather, it took us about three, almost four hours to get here," she said.
The family may have been delayed, but they were not defeated.
"We are going to, of course, go to Times Square. We'll probably make it to a Broadway show. I think the 'Lion King' is calling us," Cade said.
Start of summer travel surge
The Memorial Day weekend travel surge at airports was only the beginning.
AAA expects U.S. airlines to carry about 271 million passengers this summer, up more than 6% from last year.