Dozens of travelers at John Glenn Columbus International Airport stranded due to canceled

COLUMBUS, Ohio — The weather in Columbus remained below freezing on Monday and that threw air travel into a tailspin.

Multiple flights on Delta, Spirit and Southwest were cancelled for a variety of reasons.

One family trying to head to the Virgin Islands was told weather was not an issue for their flight cancellation.

“They are not telling us anything. They are just saying the crew did not show up for work today,” Tom Bruce said.

Spirit Airlines refunded their trip, but they had a reservation that was not refundable. So he and his family were busy trying to rebook their flight out of another airport.

That lead to more problems.

“The airlines are charging like $3,000 to $4,000 with like multiple stops,” Gennifer Phillips said.

The bitter cold took a bite out of lot of people’s travel plans flying out of John Glenn Columbus International Airport.

A travel group of 19 showed up excited to leave for Europe after their plans were cancelled three times because of COVID. They arrived to find out their plane wasn’t flying.

“We were told operational issues,” Beth Edgington said.

Almost 3,000 flights within, into or out of the US had already been canceled by 2 p.m. Monday, according to flight tracking website FlightAware, while more than 4,900 flights had been delayed.

Heather Mathes and her family were hoping to fly to St. Martin only to learn that flight was cancelled twice.

She said after hours and hours on the phone with Delta to rebook somewhere else, they were able to fly from Columbus to New York with a stop in Atlanta to see Ohio State play in the Peach Bowl. After that they are headed to Miami.

“We fly during the Holiday’s all the time, and I’ve never see it this bad, ever,” she said.

The airport says it brought in surge teams to handle the added work brought by the storm.

The airline suggest you arrive at least 90 minutes before your flight to give you enough time to check in. The airport also recommends you check with the airline before you arriving at the airport to ensure your flight is on time.

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