Tuesday, December 27, 2011
CHARLOTTE, NC (WBTV) – Holiday travelers coming and going through Charlotte Tuesday were met with a surprise that had several of them spending more time than they expected in the Queen City.
High winds started picking up around 9 a.m. as the back end of a low pressure system began leaving the region.
The National Weather Service in Greenville-Spartanburg issued a wind advisory until 6 a.m. Wednesday.
Winds are expected to blow between 20 and 30 miles per hour with gusts up to 45 miles per hour or higher.
Air traffic controllers at Charlotte-Douglas International Airport issued two ground stop delays before lunchtime.
A ground stop is when all flights bound for an airport are held at their departure point until the weather improves at the destination airport.
Delays peaked at Charlotte-Douglas around 2:45 p.m. at 45 minutes for departing flights and were back down to 15 minutes or less by 4:30 p.m., according to the airport status tracking website Flightaware.com.
Several North Carolina airports with Charlotte-bound flights had lengthy delays waiting on the tarmac Tuesday morning before being allowed to fly into Charlotte.
US Airways flight 2287, scheduled to depart Greensboro at 11:26 a.m. wasn't allowed to leave because of the windy weather until noon, arriving into Charlotte more than an hour late at 1:38 p.m. , according to US Airways.
The two airports are geographically 85 miles apart.
Flights coming to Charlotte weren't the only victims.
A US Airways Express flight heading to New York's LaGuardia Airport departed Charlotte 56 minutes late at 4:45 p.m. Tuesday afternoon, according to the US Airways website.
By 5 p.m., 30 flights coming or going through Charlotte had been canceled, according to Flightaware.com.
Rieann Schreiner was headed to back to Newark after spending Christmas with her dad. "It was suppose to be 6pm and now it's delayed till 7pm," Schreiner said.
"My sister's gotten a lot of calls about her flight being delayed and changed...She's going to Atlanta and then to Lousiana," Terrie Do said.
Terrie Do says she doesn't mind the wait..saying she prefers her sister arrive safely rather than on time.
With fewer flights and planes fuller than ever before, some folks found it hard to rebook.
"Our flight on Delta was delayed so our connecting flight we missed..there's 5 of us trying to go from Cincinnati to St. Louis however we've been delayed," Traveler Dana Young said. "We can only hope and if we have to stay all night we'll have to call the family back."
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