{"id":196105,"date":"2026-03-18T09:32:03","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T09:32:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/196105\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T09:32:03","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T09:32:03","slug":"why-is-orlando-international-airport-so-backed-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/196105\/","title":{"rendered":"Why is Orlando International Airport so backed up?"},"content":{"rendered":"

ORLANDO, Fla. \u2013 Not even halfway through Spring Break, the Orlando International Airport (MCO) is experiencing dozens of cancellations and hundreds of delays, according to FlightAware<\/a>.<\/p>\n

News 6 noticed many of these disruptions on Monday, when weather across the country spurred on delays and cancellations at MCO<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Crowds at MCO on Tuesday, March 17 (Copyright 2026 by WKMG ClickOrlando – All rights reserved.)<\/p>\n

However, several travelers at the time said they were left with few answers as airlines reshuffled schedules throughout the day.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey just said best of luck. But they gave us credit. But we didn\u2019t really want (that),\u201d one traveler told News 6.<\/p>\n

[BELOW: Weather delays, cancellations frustrate MCO travelers]<\/p>\n

But on Tuesday, the airport was still filled with crowds of travelers struggling with continued disruptions.<\/p>\n

As of 6 p.m., FlightAware reported well over 400 delays at MCO, as well as over 90 cancellations.<\/p>\n

Crowds at MCO on Tuesday, March 17 (Copyright 2026 by WKMG ClickOrlando – All rights reserved.)<\/p>\n

MCO\u2019s website shows that security wait times have reached around an hour in Terminal C. <\/p>\n

Airport officials said weather and travel volume \u2014 not the shutdown \u2014 were the main drivers of delays.<\/p>\n

Katie Kerwin Gielniak said she was visiting family in Orlando and was supposed to fly home to Sacramento Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt got delayed, delayed, delayed for about six hours and then canceled,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

[BELOW: Rename MCO?!<\/a> The Orlando Airport Debate Is Getting Heated]<\/p>\n

She said the next flight she could book was not until Tuesday, so she returned to the airport.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was supposed to leave earlier, but it got delayed, delayed, delayed. And now here I am, hoping that I get on the flight,\u201d she continued.<\/p>\n

The Crandall family flew from Cleveland for a cruise and was originally scheduled to return Monday morning.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe sat in the airport for 11 hours, had to book another hotel, and we\u2019re hoping to get out to go to Columbus to rent a car and go back to Cleveland,\u201d Crandall stated.<\/p>\n

Officials at the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority said the delays were a \u201cperfect storm\u201d of bad weather around the country and spring break crowds, and they said the lines were not caused by the partial government shutdown.<\/p>\n

[BELOW: City\u2019s handling of chaotic Daytona Beach weekend questioned amid pop-up event, shootings]<\/p>\n

They praised the Transportation Security Administration for performing well under difficult conditions.<\/p>\n

Kerwin Gielniak, who dealt with travel disruptions for several days, agreed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe TSA was great on Sunday. It was. Everybody thought it was that. I think today is a bunch of rescheduled flights. They just got a lot of flights.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Crandall family said being delayed in Orlando had an upside.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd we went to Disney World! So at least that was better!\u201d Crandall exclaimed.<\/p>\n

Crowds began thinning as flights moved through the night and the backlog from storms around the country slowly cleared.<\/p>\n

MCO said it is holding a food drive for unpaid TSA workers affected by the partial government shutdown. Donations are being accepted outside Terminal C and at information kiosks throughout the airport.<\/p>\n

Breaking News Alerts<\/p>\n

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Copyright 2026 by WKMG ClickOrlando – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. \u2013 Not even halfway through Spring Break, the Orlando International Airport (MCO) is experiencing dozens of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":196106,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[2659,6205,9181,1335,139,141,3847,140,107],"class_list":["post-196105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-disney-world","tag-mco","tag-oia","tag-orange-county","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-international-airport","tag-orlando-news","tag-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=196105"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196105\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/196106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}