While Floridians are used to storms of all sorts, the last two days have brought with them not just stormy weather but also heavy rain, thunder, hail and lightning to the Orlando area.
Heavy fog and the threat of gusty winds of up to 45 miles per hour have sown chaos onto the area around the airport that hundreds of travelers use to start their trip in the sun or Disney (DIS) vacation. According to data from plane-tracking site FlightAware, over 628 flights were delayed while 20 were canceled by the end of Sunday.
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“Airports in Florida are being impacted by storms today and weather is the leading cause of delays and cancellations,” the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said in a note on the ground stop that it issued for several hours on March 3. “The FAA’s Command Center works closely with airlines to plan for, and around, expected weather nationwide.”
These are the airlines with the most cancelations and delays in Orlando
The biggest reason for the cancelations had to do with the heavy fog that enveloped the area and made it difficult for pilots to see the area in front of the plane. But even after the ground stop was lifted late on Sunday afternoon, airlines struggled to catch up to restart the flight schedule. With 174 flights and more than 60% of its Orlando schedule taking off late, Southwest Airlines (LUV) took the biggest hit out of all the other airlines at the airport.
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Spirit Airlines (SAVE) and Delta Air Lines (DAL) followed close behind with a respective 104 and 83 delays.
While the weather played a large role in the cancelations, the situation was also exacerbated by the fact that most airports across the country do not have enough air traffic controllers who would have made it possible to run more flights in bad weather. Even though the entire aviation industry is currently facing severe understaffing, the high stress and extensive training that comes with the role makes the situation particularly bad in the air traffic controller space.
Back in 2023, the FAA issued a warning saying that airports in places like the New York City area were at just over 50% of their air traffic controller staffing goals. This results in significant delays during both regular times and bad weather.
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‘We sat out there for another hour…’
As a result, many of the travelers who were supposed to fly into or fly out of Orlando on March 3 dealt were often left waiting for hours even after they were allowed to board the plane.
“We sat out there for about an hour, an hour 15 minutes,” one witness described to the Orlando TV station WESH. “There was lots of traffic on the runway out there, planes just backed up.”
While planes have been flying out successfully as of Monday morning, forecasts predict more thunderstorms to pass through the Orlando area through the day of March 4.
On its social media platforms, the airport encouraged travelers to monitor the latest updates both for the airline they’re taking as well as from the airport and federal authorities.
