Hundreds of Delta Air Lines flights into and out of the Atlanta airport were canceled or delayed Thursday evening into Friday.
FlightAware shows nearly 300 flights set to arrive or depart Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport have been canceled as of noon Friday, and nearly 800 have been delayed.
Many of those were Delta flights, which reported more than 250 cancellations and 450 delays in total for the airline.
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Channel 2 Action News viewers sent in videos of travelers either sleeping inside or walking around airports overnight on Thursday.
“I’ve never experienced anything like this,” delayed traveler Robert Carey told Channel 2’s Audrey Washington on Friday.
Carey said first the storms rolled through the area Thursday evening and then the delays began.
He said after his flight from South Bend, Indiana, got diverted to Greenville, South Carolina, the plane sat on the tarmac for hours.
“They can’t find the staff to let us off the plane. They can’t find the fuel trap. They then told us we were a priority and now we’re waiting,” Carey said.
A Delta spokesperson told Channel 2 Action News the Augusta airport experienced power outages.
The spokesperson also said most of its impacted flights were weather-related.
“And this is something the Department of Transportation is digging into, because they feel like at times the airlines are blaming everything on weather,” said Teresa Murray, consumer watchdog director for the Public Interest Research Group, or PIRG.
“Right now, by law three hours is a significant delay, and that’s by arrival not departure,” Murray said.
“You have the right to a full refund of your flight, your baggage, your seat charge, anything if you’re not going to take the flight. And it doesn’t matter why it’s cancelled or significantly delayed,” she added.
Murray also said there are rules for when an airline can let people off of a grounded plane.
“Three hours is when they are supposed to give you the opportunity to get off the plane, and if they don’t, that’s when the airlines get in trouble,” said Murray.
“20 hours from South Bend to Atlanta, and I’m not even in Florida yet,” Carey told Washington.
Carey texted Washington at 12:30 p.m. Friday, when he finally made it home to Fort Myers, Florida.
Link for travelers to file complaints through the DOT against airlines, ticketing websites, airport personnel, etc. is available here: https://airconsumer.dot.gov/consumer/s/complaint-form
Read more about passenger rights, new laws, tips for travelers, etc. here: https://pirg.org/flighttips
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