INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Holiday travel began Tuesday morning after an hour-long nationwide ground stop was ordered for all American Airlines flights.
This caused the delay of more than 40 flights and the cancellation of one flight inside and outside Indianapolis International Airport, according to the British newspaper “Daily Mail”. FlightAware.
Tuesday afternoon travel disruptions have returned to normal since the brief ground stop. While flights are delayed at Indianapolis International Airport, passengers are still heading home for Christmas.
“They said it was a very good flight,” said vacation passenger Zee Royal. “They said it was beautiful in Las Vegas when they flew through.”
Another passenger, Kirsten Todd, said: “Their flight was 30 or 20 minutes early or something. So, a pretty good day of travel.”
Transportation Security Administration Officials expected passenger numbers to decrease on Tuesday and Wednesday, with the number of passengers expected to reach 15,000 on Tuesday and 12,000 on Christmas Day.
Meanwhile, News 8 spoke with a family who was spending their downtime with relatives and feeling cozy in their Christmas pajamas. “It’s like a big thing that happens in our family,” Royal said. “We get together at our house every year. Everyone comes and gets matching pajamas; all the boys get a matching color, and the girls get a matching set. So, everyone loves it! It’s a huge hit!”
Holiday travel delays are common, but glitches and outages can make situations worse. News 8 caught up with a family traveling to Rome who, to their surprise, has had a smooth travel journey so far. Julie Nahawi, from Carmel, said: “I was hoping we would leave earlier, but the best trips were today. So, we’ll be up in the air when Christmas comes. We have one in Indiana (university) and one in Purdue (university), so we had to work around their schedules. Are we moving away from Indiana? Instead of traveling in the summer when everyone is traveling, we like to travel during Christmas.
Another California family kept up their festive cheer, expressing their excitement to continue their cherished Christmas traditions rather than focus on travel hiccups. “I’m just out to see family that I haven’t seen in a while. I just saw them last summer. We’re probably going to go Christmas shopping and stuff,” said vacation rider Brantley Miller.
Despite the challenges, travelers showed their determination to embrace this holiday season.
