By EMIILIE MEGNIEN and RIO YAMAT Associated Press
ATLANTA (AP) — Travel disruptions continued Tuesday in the U.S. as airlines worked to recover from a powerful storm system that had already snarled flight schedules a day earlier.
Carriers canceled more than 1,000 U.S. flights on Tuesday and delayed about 4,200 others, according to flight-tracking site FlightAware. The disruptions were most severe at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, with over 200 flights canceled and roughly 450 delayed.
The disruptions follow a chaotic Monday for air travel, triggered by powerful storms that dumped snow by the foot in the Midwest and swept through the eastern half of the country, leading to thousands of cancellations at major hubs, including in New York, Chicago and Atlanta. Gusts approached 50 mph (80 kph) in parts of New York, the National Weather Service said.
Kelly Price, who was trying to get home to Colorado after a family vacation in Orlando, Florida, said her Sunday night flight wasn’t canceled until early Monday.
“By that time, the only place for us to sleep was the airport floor. So we’re all tired and frustrated,” she said, adding that the soonest flight she and her family could book doesn’t leave until Tuesday afternoon.
Air travel was already under pressure before the storms. A partial government shutdown that began Feb. 14 has thinned staffing at some security checkpoints, at times leading to longer lines. And airports are crowded with spring break travelers and fans heading to March Madness, the annual NCAA men’s and women’s college basketball tournaments.
On Monday alone, more than 4,800 U.S. flights were canceled. Delays topped 12,800. They included about 600 canceled flights at Chicago O’Hare International Airport, more than 500 at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson and roughly 450 at New York’s LaGuardia Airport, according to FlightAware. The Federal Aviation Administration also issued ground stops and delays at several major airports as conditions worsened.
The storms also unfolded just as airport security screeners missed their first full paycheck over the weekend. The ongoing shutdown affects only the Department of Homeland Security, which includes the Transportation Security Administration.
Democrats in Congress have said Homeland Security won’t get funded until new restrictions are placed on federal immigration operations following the fatal shootings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minneapolis earlier this year.
It is the third shutdown in less than a year to leave TSA workers temporarily without pay. Once the government reopens, employees will have to wait for back pay.
Some airports have reported longer security lines due to staffing shortages as more TSA workers take on second jobs, can’t afford gas to get to work or leave the profession altogether. Homeland Security has said more than 300 TSA agents have quit since the shutdown began.
In Atlanta, Mel Stewart and his wife arrived four hours earlier than usual on Monday for their flight out of Hartsfield-Jackson to make up for longer TSA lines.
“I think it’s being politicized way too much — way too much,” Stewart said of the shutdown. “And these people are working. They work hard, and for TSA people not to get paid, that’s silly.”
Outside the Atlanta airport, TSA union leaders held a news conference Monday warning that air travelers could face increasingly long wait times as the shutdown continues. Supporters held signs reading, “We want a paycheck, not a rain check.”
Many TSA workers “are coping with eviction notices, vehicle repossessions, empty refrigerators and overdrawn bank accounts,” said Aaron Barker, a local leader with the American Federation of Government Employees. Even so, he said, many officers continue reporting to work despite mounting financial strain.
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Yamat reported from Las Vegas. Associated Press reporters Margery A. Beck in Omaha, Nebraska, and Audrey McAvoy in Honolulu contributed to this report.