Several flights out of DFW Airport were canceled on Monday as airlines dealt with staff shortages due to COVID and bad weather conditions in parts of the country.
Robert Natharden told WFAA.Com he and his wife were rerouted by American Airlines to Monrose, Colorado, where they sat on the tarmac for an hour.
After the delay, they learned the flight was canceled. Things got worse as they finally landed at DFW Airport, only to find their luggage had gone missing.
Airlines have blamed the growing number of people affected by the Omicron variant for nationwide delays. Kim Cook told WFAA.com that although she made her first flight, her connecting flight was canceled and she was grounded in Dallas until Tuesday, December 28.
A quick look at American Airlines’ Twitter feed reveals passenger after passenger reporting delayed, missed, and canceled flights.
Travelers for Delta were in the same boat, reporting not being able to get through to customer service lines and lost baggage.
Scot Rose tweeted that he was waiting on a flight to arrive for hours along with a picture of an empty ticket counter. He wrote that all the agents left and he witnessed a woman trying to get home to a funeral who was left sobbing at the empty counter.
TSA says its agents screened over two million people on Sunday, December 26. CNN.com reported that on the following Monday over 2,800 flights were canceled and 11,000 were delayed nationwide. Flightaware.com reports that on Monday Dallas Love Field had 138 delayed flights and five canceled, while DFW alone had 221 flights delayed and eighty-one canceled.
