Fourth Of July Travel: Incoming Flights At Philadelphia International Airport Being Held At Originating Airports Until 6 P.M.

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Americans are traveling for the Fourth of July holiday weekend at near pre-pandemic numbers. AAA predicts nearly 48 million people will go 50 or more miles from home this weekend, that's up 3.7% from 2021.

Plenty of people are flying the friendly skies and the Philadelphia International Airport expects more flights this holiday compared to 2021. But, bad news for anyone who is supposed to be traveling to Philadelphia.

All incoming flights to PHL are being held at their originating airport until 6 p.m. Airport officials tell CBS3 this is happening "up and down the East Coast." They believe it is weather-related.

For travelers leaving Philadelphia, flights are still departing.

 

Friday is expected to be the busiest day at the airport, around 89,000 people are expected to pass through, hitting the skies for the holiday weekend.

CBS3 found long lines snaking down the hallways and it was taking passengers about a half-hour to pass through TSA security on Friday morning.

While the high gas prices and inflation are driving up ticket prices, that's clearly not keeping people home. More than 414,000 passengers are expected to move through Philly International Airport over the next six days.

That's about 16% lower than what we saw pre-pandemic, but 9% higher than last year.

A big concern this holiday weekend is cancellations and delays. That's been a problem over the past few weeks.

According to Flight Aware, there have been nearly 30 delays at PHL Friday and 15 canceled flights.

Travelers are hoping they are not affected.

"We had a delay today, we got our schedule off track, we're really excited just to go on a trip because we work hard, we're excited to take a little vacation. We got thrown off track today because of the delay. I know recent times there have been thousands of cancellations in the Florida area. So we were hoping that wasn't going to happen to us, but our flights still coming just a little late," Jordan Chu said.

With other possible delays and cancelations, Philly International Airport is encouraging travelers to sign up for email and text alerts for flight updates. You should arrive about 2-3 hours before boarding your flight.

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