Passengers Stranded in Atlanta Face Long Delays Getting Home

By Jim Burress

Atlanta, GA – It's a scene played out countless times this morning. Lisette Velez from Bridgeport, Connecticut arrived at the airport to find her flight to Newark, New Jersey cancelled.

"The only next outgoing flight was for Thursday," she explained sitting inside the South Terminal at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.

Still, Velez managed to clutch a ticket and share a smile. To get to that point, she said it took hours in line, a firm but polite approach at Delta's ticket counter, and a willingness to be flexible.

To get home, she has to "take a plane from Atlanta to Washington, then I have to get on an Amtrak train that will take me to LaGuardia. Once I get to LaGuardia, I have to get on a Path train to New Jersey so I can get my car and drive back from Connecticut," she said.

Velez expects to get in about 2AM "sleep deprived, cold, hungry and all."

It's one of the better stories at this airport. Tens of thousands of travelers at airports all over are waiting to get home, and some have no choice but to linger for a day or two more. Delta today alone canceled 875 flights. That puts into the thousands the number the Atlanta-based carrier has canceled in the past three days.

AirTran, which maintains its largest hub here, canceled 57 flights as of noon.

Spokesman Christopher White says with so much snow and airports closed, there's little any airline can do.

"We're really at the mercy of the weather and the equipment in those airports in the Northeast to clear those runways," he said.

White expects the situation to improve tonight into tomorrow, and urges affected passengers to make changes online--which avoids delays on hold.

White said AirTran is considering adding flights to absorb the backlog, but as of Monday afternoon, no firm decision had been made.

A Delta spokesman said it should resume normal operations tomorrow morning.