Short security lines, long list of cancellations at Atlanta airport after ground stop

Many airline travelers slept on the hard floor in the terminal. Others checked into crowded hotels. Throughout the day Saturday, they waited to board new flights after the coast-to-coast ground stop brought planes to a halt.

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Robbie Ratan was visiting Atlanta from San Francisco and had a 7 a.m. flight Saturday back home. He arrived at 6:20

“And at 6:22, they said sorry, the pilot just called in and he has fatigue,” he said. “He was on the tarmac for 17 hours, so we’re cancelling this flight. And an ‘awww’ went over the crowd.”

He hoped to make it home to the West Coast in time for a get-together with his children, but that wasn’t happening.

“So I guess I get to explore Atlanta a little bit more,” he said.

Security checkpoint lines at the domestic terminal ranged from 10 minutes to a little more than 20 minutes for most of the morning. The airport had more than 450 flight cancellations just after noon Saturday and more than 300 delays.

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Madison Cassels flew in from Los Angeles in the wee hours Saturday, after the flight had been delayed six hours. Then she learned her two-hour connecting flight from Atlanta to her destination was cancelled.

“So the next available flight they could give me is 9 p.m., so I will be here 15 more hours, so like over a day,” she said.

She’s 18 years old and traveling alone.

“This is very scary and not a great situation to be in at all,” she said.

Diana Elliott had a 10:30 a.m. flight back to St. Louis after she sat on the tarmac for more than three hours Friday night. She said the pilot and crew never announced the nationwide ground stop, but passengers learned of the situation on their phones.

When the flight was cancelled, “it was a mad dash to the exit,” she said. She and her friend had booked a hotel room.

“We don’t know where our suitcases are,” she said. “So we had no clothes last night, but other than that, it was okay. We travel a lot so we were just kind of like, it happens. So it didn’t bother us too much.”

Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines is offering flexible rescheduling options at no extra cost and is advising those with flexible travel plans to make flights for Monday or later.

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