Thousands of airline passengers at Los Angeles International Airport endured another day of delays and cancellations related to the deadly winter storm hitting the Midwest and East Coast of the U.S.
Some lucky travelers were able to make it home in time for Christmas. Others have been forced to cancel or rethink their holiday plans.
“It’s quite stressful because all of us wanted to be home for Christmas, but that won’t happen this year,” Vayis Mano told KTLA 5.
Mano and her friends were trying to rebook canceled flights to Toronto but had a difficult time because planes were fully booked and there were fewer options on Christmas Day.
“We’ve had a lot of issues rescheduling the flights and also because it’s so last-minute,” Jatheeshan Raveenthirrian, Mano’s friend, said. “It’s harder to find tickets at the same price they were before.”
Many airlines are offering to book stranded travelers into hotels. But for Michelle Russo, who is supposed to be meeting family in Maui, that is little consolation.
“I’m here with a couple of kids, my nieces, and there were other kids on the flight. It’s heartbreaking. It’s Christmas,” Russo told us. “We got there to the gate with a few minutes to spare. They filled all our seats with people on standby. So, me and about 20 other people who were supposed to go to Maui today, cannot go until Monday.”
At LAX, 125 flights were canceled on Saturday, down from 400 cancellations yesterday.
According to FlightAware.com, U.S. airlines have canceled more than 10,000 flights since Wednesday.