CHARLOTTE, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) – Passengers at the Charlotte airport were impacted by hundreds of delays caused by wintry weather at cities all over the country.
According to the website flightaware.com, just before 7 p.m. on Monday, there were 497 flight delays and 114 cancellations.
Weather-impacted destinations include Birmingham, Boston, Washington, DC, St. Louis, and more.
“The fact that it’s due to weather, there were no accommodations; I just had to figure out how to get home and everything,” said Brittany Alexander of Kansas City, facing delay after delay. “That was not fun, but I’m excited to go home now.”
“It’s been pretty bad!” she says days after having a ball on New Year’s Eve in the Big Apple.
“We got to get up and get close and see the ball drop on 42nd and Broadway,” said Alexander, showing us the video on her phone.
But getting back to Kansas City has not been such a celebratory experience.
“And then Charlotte got canceled on Saturday night,” she says. “So Saturday night I actually slept in the Charlotte airport.”
“Not fun,” said Alexander.
“Nightmare,” said Dorsa Derakhshamiof Columbia, Missouri.
She came to Charlotte for an intercollegiate chess tournament. Her Mizzou women’s team finished third in the nation, but after that, her travel moves included delays that left her stranded.
She showed us a video of her snow-coated neighborhood back in the Show Me State.
“It’s nobody’s fault; I can’t do anything,” says Derakhshami. ”So, I just try to keep a decent attitude, hang out with my teammates, and see what happens.”
Meanwhile, outside the airport, folks watched planes fly in and out.
We exactly don’t think of aviation as a spectator sport, but the Airport Overlook gave flight students from Raleigh a view of their future.
“Wow,” Haden Bray marveled.
“Yeah, there’s a lot of bad weather going on,” said Bray, daring to dream on a tricky Monday for travel.
“It’s all about the safety of the passengers and the operation of the flight itself,” he told Queen City News.
