DFW Airport

Travelers Facing Delays and Cancellations as the Holiday Weekend Begins

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Hunter, who is flying from Dallas to New York, feels like many travelers today.

"Pretty angry," Hunter said. "I'm pretty upset about it. It's a large inconvenience for us."

Hunter is facing a canceled flight.

"Originally I was supposed to be going to New York City for a wedding for a close friend of ours," Hunter said. "It's affecting us pretty badly that now neither one of us are going to be able to make it."

Adding to that frustration he is getting no clear answer as to why.

"They said it had something to do with the weather, then they were going to reroute us," Hunter said. "Then they said they didn't have enough fuel and then they told us we were going to deboard the plane so we'd be more comfortable. But when we got back to the terminal they told us the flight was canceled."

 For some the uncertainty began even before making it to the airport.

"Six o'clock this morning and then every hour it changed, it changed, it changed and when I got to the airport it said it was canceled," flyer Talaya Ferguson said.

Several reasons are causing the issues including more people flying. 

Love Field had 17,000 bookings today compared to just over 6,600 this day last year.

"Before you come out to the airport make sure that your flight is still on schedule," Chris Perry with Dallas Love Field said. "Make sure it hasn't been canceled. The last thing we'd want is for someone to spend their holiday weekend stuck here at the airport."

Southwest Airlines put out a statement saying weather was the cause of today's issues.

Also reported staffing shortages for some airlines is impacting travelers.

"I was asking her about it did you hear about the labor shortages with American and these flights getting canceled," flyer Josh Yax said. "Didn't think it was going to happen to us but it did."

Despite the reason behind the issues folks are just hoping things can get worked out as soon as possible.

"A scale of one to 10, I'm giving it a four," Yax said.

Some travelers were willing to do whatever it takes to get to their Fourth of July destinations, including switching airports.

"I started off in San Francisco around midnight," said Joshua Nourse.

Nourse got caught in the backlog trying to make it home to family in Columbus when his connection at DFW turned into a three-hour wait on the tarmac and another two inside.

"It's a madhouse. There are wall-to-wall people there. They told me 100 planes had to return to the terminal from the runway," said Nourse.

Instead of waiting in the hours-long line to talk with customer service, Nourse took a Lyft to Love Field where he hoped to have better luck.

But after Southwest had its fair share of cancellations and delays, Christi and Kevin Gnadinger will now spend the first night of their Vegas trip at home.

“They cited weather, and it’s just crazy to me. Like, it’s sunny out there, and it’s definitely sunny in Vegas," said Kevin Gnadinger.

The couple and their two kids will miss out on tickets for a show and their first night in a hotel.

They say Southwest couldn't get them booked on another flight until tomorrow night, which would cause them to miss out on festivities around Kevin's parents' vow renewal, which was the reason for their trip.

Instead, they used miles, gifted from family, to book a last-minute American flight for Saturday morning.

Still, they say they're already nervous about potential delays on the trip home.

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