AUSTIN, Texas — Leticia Luna and her husband David were waiting outside the departures area of Austin-Bergstrom International Airport the day before Thanksgiving. They were waiting for their daughter to come back around and pick them up again. Unfortunately, their flight was canceled.
“We actually had an early Thanksgiving with my daughter here, so I’m stuffed. But we’re planning to have turkey again tomorrow with my son,” said Leticia Luna.
The Lunas both waited patiently for their flight to get rebooked, and luckily, they were able to hop on another flight later Wednesday evening.
“Hopefully we get home tonight and be able to spend time with my son, who’s in…the [Rio Grande] Valley,” said David Luna.
The Lunas said they don’t know why their flight was canceled, but they said the airline gave them very little notice. But as the shortage of air traffic controllers continues, many airports—including the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport—are struggling with delays and cancellations, weeks after the federal government reopened.
Spectrum News 1 reached out to the Federal Aviation Administration on Wednesday. It said in a statement, “The Federal Aviation Administration will use limited available military airspace if needed during the busy Thanksgiving holiday period to support the most efficient flow of traffic across the East Coast and the Gulf. The FAA is fully prepared to manage increased holiday traffic by also using advanced Traffic Flow Management tools. For our Thanksgiving flight forecast go to the holiday travel page.”
However, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said delays and cancellations will continue into the holidays in December.
Duffy said the $12.5 billion Congress approved this summer to overhaul the nation’s air traffic control won’t be enough to fix the systems. He said that about $20 billion more is needed to modernize it.
“To sit back and think that we’re going to not have more delays or more cancellations if we don’t build a new system is asinine,” said Duffy at a press conference on Nov. 24.
As for the Lunas, the day before Thanksgiving was hectic and unexpected, but despite it all, they’re still thankful they made it home to Harlingen to be with their son on Thanksgiving.