Travelers stranded at LaGuardia Airport as hundreds more flights are canceled in the Tri-State Area
NEW YORK -- Airline passengers across the country continued facing challenges Monday. In our area, at least 161 flights were canceled at LaGuardia, plus at least 311 at JFK and at least 377 at Newark.
Passengers are at the whim of weather in other parts of the country. The biggest headache happened for those flying Southwest, which canceled 64 percent of its flights for the day.
Brooklyn's Grace Church of God group of 22 hoped to make it to Atlanta in time for a national youth convention. They found out their flight was canceled when they showed up to check in.
"One of the things we were telling them, go pray, because we have to get out. There's no ifs ands or buts. We have to get out of New York. Our pastor is preaching at the convention," said Kathariena Gittens.
Southwest's unique challenge comes from having a hub in hard-hit Dallas as well as sending crews into storms where they got stranded.
"It's these turnaround times that are really hurting airlines and with staffing, trying to get people to the airport in this storm system that we've had," said Kathleen Bangs, with FlightAware.
Mike Haist, his wife and 4-year-old son have been stranded since Friday. They've faced five canceled flights on JetBlue as they try to travel back to Canada through Buffalo.
"New York's not cheap and it just gets more expensive by the night because it gets closer to New Years. So we spent an extra about $2,000 in the last three days," said Haist.
The family finally got booked standby on American, which assured them they could make it home.
"If not, we got a car reserved in Jersey City, New Jersey that we got to find a way to there. Uber or however it's going to work, we don't even know yet. We're going to find a way there and end up driving home, which is about an 8-hour drive," said Haist.
After waiting in the Southwest line for five hours, the Grace Church group found their saving grace.
"We've tried multiple airlines. We tried to leave out of Newark, Philadelphia. There's nothing available. So they agreed to get us a charter bus that's going to take us 13 plus hours to get there," said Rhonda Cohen.
A Southwest agent told them they won't be alone on the bus though. Up to 30 more customers can choose to take the coach south too.
Most flights for the rest of the day are fully booked as travelers filter through the lines to find new seats.
