2023-06-29 17:31:51
A sea of unclaimed baggage inside Los Angeles International Airport Terminal 7 on Thursday morning provided a stark example of the flight delays and cancellations that have affected travelers across the country ahead of the holiday weekend.
Bags and boxes from Wednesday’s delays and cancellations piled wall-to-wall in the terminal’s baggage claim area, signs of travel problems blamed mainly on severe weather elsewhere in the United States in what is expected to be the busiest stretch of July 4th. holiday period.
The scene brought back images of the winter holiday travel season, when even more severe disruptions to air travel sparked widespread frustration.
As of early Wednesday morning, more than 900 flights had been delayed in the United States, according to FlightAware. Cancellations exceeded more than 670 flights.
There were signs that widespread backups were winding down, but more than 1,000 U.S. flights were delayed and nearly 400 canceled by 6:30 a.m. Thursday, according to FlightAware.
At LAX, 90 flight delays and 15 cancellations were reported early Thursday, according to FlightAware.
A traveler told sister station NBCLA early Thursday that he was at the airport for a day and a half. Another said his family was rebooked by an airline for another flight, but he won’t be leaving until July 3.
“We just want to go home, take a shower, eat,” he said.
LAX’s July 4th travel window is Wednesday through July 10. The busiest days of that period are expected to be Thursday, when around 241,000 passengers are estimated to pass through the airport; on Friday, with some 245,000 expected passengers; and on July 10 when some 251,000 passengers are expected.
“The busy summer travel season is upon us at LAX and we expect passenger volumes to reach the highest levels we have seen so far this year with an average of 228,000 daily passengers in the days leading up to and following the holiday on Independence Day,” Justin Erbacci, CEO of Los Angeles World Airports, said in a statement Wednesday.
A few days before the holiday weekend, cancellations and delays are already being registered in thousands of flights throughout the country. To see more from Telemundo, visit
“Our parking structures are nearing capacity or filling up daily, so we encourage guests to take advantage of our award-winning smart parking system to pre-reserve a parking space in any area terminal structure. central or at the affordable LAX parking facility.
Passengers can also make the trip more enjoyable by arriving early and pre-ordering food and beverages for gate pickup or delivery.”
Scattered showers and thunderstorms are expected in the Northeast later Thursday and Friday and storms are forecast further south along the East Coast through Saturday. The West might be affected by similar unstable weather systems over the next few days.
A Delta airline plane made a hard (but safe) landing at Charlotte Douglas International Airport in North Carolina.
The worst early Thursday outages are happening once more on the East Coast. The FAA expects Thursday to be the busiest holiday with more than 52,500 flights in total.
Unlike previous disruptions that have been caused or worsened by airlines’ internal systems, this week’s delays have been caused almost entirely by bad weather. However, technology may re-emerge as a source of disruption this weekend.
Some airline planes may not be able to fly in bad weather starting this weekend due to potential interference with 5G wireless service.
To see more from Telemundo, visit
Last week, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg issued a new warning to airlines, telling them that planes not equipped with new radio altimeters, devices that measure a plane’s height above the ground, will not be able to operate in visibility. limited. starting this Saturday due to possible interference from the new 5G wireless service.
American, United, Southwest, Alaska and Frontier say all of their planes have been upgraded, but Delta Air Lines still has regarding 190 planes waiting to be upgraded because its supplier doesn’t have enough altimeters. Delta said it will schedule those planes to avoid landing where the weather might be bad to limit disruption.
Smaller airlines that operate regional flights might also be affected by the radio interference problem, as might flights operated to the United States by foreign airlines.
This story first appeared on Telemundo 52’s sister station, NBCLA. Click here to read this story in English.
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