American Airlines delays, cancellations cause headaches for holiday travelers at DFW Airport
NORTH TEXAS — DFW Airport ranked No. 1 on FlightAware's MiseryMap on Wednesday afternoon with the most cancellations and delays across all airports in the United States.
American Airlines flyers said not enough gates were available or their flights were canceled. This comes after weather and an American Airlines outage Tuesday impacted holiday travelers at DFW Airport.
Many people got into town just in time for the holidays on Christmas Day at DFW Airport, but some of them felt a little bah humbug, including Lana Holley.
"I'm feeling very grinchy today," Holley said.
Holley spent much of her morning waiting for her daughter's flight to arrive at DFW Airport.
"Luckily, she landed at 10:40, but sadly, her gate was not available until 12:05," Holley said. "We waited almost an hour and a half to get our daughter at the airport, and we were not really very happy with because this is the second time in two months that this has happened."
American Airlines flyer Kenneth Young should have made it into DFW Airport from Miami on Tuesday, but his flight got canceled.
"I was supposed to be here yesterday at 3 p.m.," Young said. "Everybody wanted to get home for Christmas. We're sitting on the plane for four hours and, then they finally just said we were done. We canceled the plane. They got us all a hotel, which was nice, and then we made it home for Christmas Day."
It's not all doom and gloom at DFW Airport. CBS News Texas spoke to a woman who had a smooth flight, and she has another reason to celebrate Christmas.
"Today's my birthday also, and I hope they have a very big celebration for me," Maria Breton said.
The birthday girl got her wish as she took in the special day with her family and shared the holiday spirit.
"Merry Christmas for everybody, and happy New Year," Breton said.
An American Airlines spokesperson sent this statement:
"Operations are back to normal after a severe, multi-hour weather event that included thunderstorms significantly impacted operations at DFW Airport on Tuesday. As soon as it was safe to operate, it was all hands on deck as our team members worked through the day and night to keep our operation — and our customers — moving. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience this may have caused.
Additional Information:
- "We did not cancel a single flight on Tuesday due to the early morning vendor technology issue."
- "The ramp was closed at DFW Airport five different times — 2 hours total — throughout Tuesday due to unsafe weather conditions."
- "Hotel and meal vouchers were available during this event, including for customers who would not normally be eligible."
- "We were able to fully recover our DFW operation overnight from Tuesday into Wednesday."