Saturday marked hundreds of canceled flights and thousands delayed across the country, including dozens at the Metroplex’s major airports.
As of 3 p.m., Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) had nearly 60 flight cancellations and over 260 delays, according to FlightAware.
The tracking website indicated 14 cancellations at Dallas Love Field Airport and 42 delays.
The cuts represent a 4% reduction this weekend, mandated by the Federal Aviation Administration. At a large airport like DFW International, cancellations represent a small fraction of flights.
Della Spires said traveling from Richmond, Virginia, to DFW was “very smooth, actually.”
Spires had a stopover in Atlanta, another major airport.
“I expected it to be hectic, given both airports that I was flying both in and out of were on the list, you know, of expected cuts,” Spires said.
She said she arrived about three hours early for her flight and checked her app frequently.
“Both the Richmond airport and the Atlanta airport, you can hear them on both the intercoms, ‘Hey, constantly check your app, just in case something changes last minute,” she said.
Spires said she’ll be doing the same for her flight back home to Richmond on Monday.
The Torres family was glad their trip to Orlando, booked two months ago, was also not affected.
“I was the trip planner, planned for 16,17 people, everything went well,” said Manuel Torres.
Kyle Lee wasn’t so lucky; he ended up passing through DFW after Breeze Airlines canceled his direct flight from Indiana to Florida.
He said, according to the text he received on Thursday night, his flight was canceled “because of a requirement from the FAA.”
“And so, I immediately started looking at other arrangements of how do I get home?” Lee said.
Lee said he booked a one-way with American Airlines, with a stop in DFW on Friday, that cost him the same as his original round-trip.
“And now I got to figure out how do I get reimbursed on that flight or use it in the future,” he said.
Many airlines are offering refunds and free flight changes right now.
Lee said he was nervous about traveling through DFW International.
“I saw in the news that DFW was one of them that was being advertised as going through major cancellations,” he said.
He did encounter a delay upon arrival.
“They announced it over the intercom that they’re having to fly west about 20 minutes and come in. And as we were doing that, you could see all the planes coming in like caravan style,” he recalled.
Lee said although he only had about 30 minutes to make his connection, he was able to do so, making it home.
The FAA issued an advisory on Saturday, saying that passengers can “expect arrival delays” and “airborne holding” into DFW International of up to 30 minutes due to staffing.
Saturday’s mixed bag of travelers may turn into one with more and more affected passengers, as cuts are expected to ramp up to 6, 8, then 10% over the next week as the government shutdown continues.
The uncertainty has many travelers already rethinking holiday plans.
“It’s got me worried of, do I continue on with Thanksgiving plans with the family? I don’t want to get stranded, you know, on Thanksgiving time. So, this is really taking a toll on everybody out there. What do we do?” said Lee, who travels often for work.
He’s got another trip planned next weekend.
“It’d be nice to not have to worry about this in the back of our minds, if we’re going to make it to the destination that we’re trying to get to because of all the different hiccups that are happening,” he said.
Spires, who is hoping to have another smooth experience for her trip back home on Monday, said she’s not taking another gamble.
“I’ve alleviated the stress for the holidays. I’ve decided to not go anywhere,” she said.
Spires said because of the government shutdown and resulting FAA-mandated flight reductions, she’s decided to drive to get her mom from Savannah, Georgia, and bring her to her home.
“Instead of just dealing with the whole debacle in the airports, she’s an older woman, I just don’t want her to be in the mix of all that,” she said.