Travelers bound for Philadelphia continue to face delays, disruption following strikes on Venezuela
Major U.S. airlines canceled hundreds of flights on Saturday because of safety concerns and restrictions imposed by the Federal Aviation Administration following the strikes on Venezuela.
By Sunday morning, flights were cleared to resume, but the backlog could still be felt at Philadelphia International Airport, where restrictions triggered cancellations to and from San Juan, Aruba, Cancun, Barbados, St. Thomas and St. Martin.
"Our flight was supposed to leave around 8 o'clock this morning, so we were here about 5:30, and it just kept getting delayed, delayed, and it wasn't until 11 o'clock that we found out it was truly canceled at that time," one traveler told CBS News Philadelphia.
Christine Szymkowski, of Sicklerville said, "We got there over three hours early, it was a nightmare, chaos, the lines were horrendous."
Brent Childs was supposed to fly out of San Juan Saturday but now will have to take three flights back on Monday.
"We have to connect through places, so we're flying into Miami, then we fly over to Tampa, and then back into Philly," Childs said.
Officials say it could take days for everything to get back to normal. Travelers here are just grateful they made it back.
Eliana Uriona and Javier Feliciano's flight arrived about an hour late, and they said they know others have not been so lucky.
"Not everyone has the luxury of being able to just extend their vacation by a week," Feliciano said. "When you factor in the costs to stay there for an extra week, that's really tough on a lot of people."