Flight Cancelations Continue at Orlando International After Weekend of Huge Delays
Thousands of passengers this weekend had their flights canceled or delayed at Orlando International Airport leaving some without a way back home.
A total of 204 flights were canceled between Saturday and Sunday due to a combination of severe weather that ran through the Sunshine State on Saturday, personnel shortages and a high demand of customers, according MCO spokeswoman Carolyn Fennell.
“We’re close to our 2019 volume,” Fennell said. “We’re the busiest airport in the northeast corridor. Unfortunately that’s where a lot of that weather was.”
Among the thousands affected was Colorado Springs resident Gabrielle Kallin who flew into MCO early Friday with a party of five looking forward to celebrating her bachelorette weekend in St. Augustine.
The party was off to a rocky start when her flight with Frontier Airlines originally scheduled to arrive at around 10 p.m. Thursday at MCO was delayed until after 2 a.m. Friday due a technical error, with the air bridge getting stuck to the plane, said 37-year-old Christina Boye, a member Kallin’s bachelorette party.
The flight was almost canceled because of the pilots having worked too long, but the pilots appealed and were able to get to Orlando.
On Sunday, Kallin, 28, and her friends were stymied yet again, first being told by Frontier that the flight had been delayed by an hour. Then, an hour before takeoff, the flight was canceled.
“At Frontier, we strive to deliver the best travel experience possible, and unfortunately this time we came up a bit short,” according to an email Frontier sent to passengers.
Kallin said that she and other passengers were at first unaware of the email because it arrived in a junk folder, and were unable to speak with Frontier representatives as no one was at the desk.
Many travelers experiencing similar cancellations took to Twitter to air their exasperations. One user, Frank Gray, tweeted about the Worcester Polytechnic Institute baseball team having their Southwest flight canceled and getting stuck in MCO until Tuesday.
“Southwest you cancel Saturday flights and leave (the WPI baseball team) stranded until Tuesday in Orlando without any hotel accommodations or giving them access to their luggage? Not a good look for you.”
Frontier informed Kallin and other passengers they would offer them a $100 voucher for future flights, and would cover up to $500 in rebooking the canceled flight with a different airline. However, most flights leaving out of Orlando to Colorado Springs are more than $500; many exceeding $1,000.
Kallin and her party were able rebook a flight 10 p.m. Monday with Southwest Airlines but chose to fly into Denver at a cheaper cost, which they had to pay themselves.
“I really hope we get reimbursed, later,” Kallin said.
Her travel plans were skewed further when looking for accommodations for the night as most hotels near the airport were booked up with other travelers whose flights were also canceled.
“We went 20 minutes away from the airport via Uber and paid out of pocket for a hotel stay,” she said. “Very frustrating, expensive and stressful is putting it mildly. You won’t find me flying Frontier again.”
Orlando flight cancellations are lower Monday with a total of 24 as of 4:30 p.m. Fennel said, but it could take days for the airport to get back on track.
“Airlines are back-filling space as it becomes available. It can take a couple of days to catch up,” she said. “It depends on the airlines and what’s available.”
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