Old North News

The holiday crunch for air travel extended into Tuesday as airlines were scrambling to move passengers, even if it wasn’t through the air.

“There were thousands of people stuck in the airports,” Rex Sladek, an air traveler, told WRAL News after arriving at Raleigh Durham International (RDU) Airport far later than scheduled. “I couldn’t make any flights because they were all full for the next three days.” 

The problem started before Christmas, one of the busiest travel times of the year, as airlines made widespread cancellations and delays in light of the Arctic blast that brought high winds and blizzard conditions to much of the country.

The woes continued Tuesday, where a departure board in Terminal 1 at RDU showed 74% of Southwest flights canceled. Southwest canceled 2,500 flights nationwide that day. 

With so many flights canceled, and demand particularly high during the holidays, airlines scrambled to attempt to get people where they wanted to go. 

Sladek was forced to spend an extra day in Texas, and he missed celebrating Christmas with his family. By Tuesday, he was back in Raleigh, but his luggage was not.

“My luggage is stuck someplace else,” he told WRAL News. “It’s just a whole mess.”

Southwest Airlines was trying to get passengers to hubs in Atlanta and Nashville by offering to charter buses for those willing to hit the highway on Monday. 

Karen Buster, who wanted to get to Nashville on Monday, was already through security when an airline representative announced that buses would be leaving within an hour if they could get 30 takers to ride to either of those hub airports. The charter was scheduled to leave by 5 p.m. for the eight-hour drive, and Eric Ford was among about a dozen who took the airline up on the offer.

"There’s nothing else I can do, except sit on this bus to get back home,” he said, according to WRAL News.

Others stood in line in hopes of getting an alternate flight, though an opening for one was often several days in the future.