Anand Srinivasan was just about to check his baggage for a family spring break trip to Rhode Island, when he discovered the flight had been canceled.
“All of a sudden it became pure pandemonium in the airport” on that Saturday morning at Hartsfield-Jackson International in Atlanta, said Srinivasan, who lives in Georgia. A storm forecast in the Northeast meant the next available flight for rebooking would cost the family days off their trip. The much-anticipated vacation set for early March was a bust, and Srinivasan was out the cost of his Airbnb booking and airport parking.
Airlines have been working for months to gird for soaring demand, with persistent staffing woes and decades of under-investment in aviation infrastructure threatening to create a repeat of last summer when similar troubles created havoc at airports across the globe. But it turns out, spring is already proving to be a test for airlines and travelers.
