Flights canceled, long delays at Atlanta airport due to storms, TSA staffing

by Atlanta First News staff, Sydney Stallworth

ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) — Airlines are delaying and canceling flights as a massive storm rolled through Georgia on Monday bringing a ground stop along with it.

Monday evening, the FAA listed a ground stop request by Delta Airlines for flights coming into Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport from airports in states like Texas, Tennessee, Ohio, Florida, Washington D.C.

The ground stop request was listed for a brief time and expired after 10 p.m.

Atlanta News First reached out to Delta representatives to gather more information.

A Delta spokesperson told Atlanta News First that the airline “requested a brief Air Traffic Control management program with the FAA Monday evening to meter inbound flights to our Atlanta hub for operational purposes.”

“We appreciate the partnership with Air Traffic Control and our customers’ patience as we work through ensuing delays caused by severe weather in eastern North America today,” the spokesperson said.

It is a double whammy with the partial government shutdown impacting FAA staffing. As of 8:30 a.m., the security wait times alone were upwards of 105 minutes. That is down from 180 minutes earlier in the day.

“This is actually the worst I’ve ever seen it. I travel a lot. Probably 12 flights a year and this is pretty bad,” said one traveler named Reese.

Some passengers, whose original flights were booked for Sunday night, tell Atlanta News First, they were impacted by storm cancelations and long TSA lines Monday morning.

“I arrived at the airport yesterday. It was ridiculous,” traveler Ree Newell said. “From the outside looking in, I thought it would be a breeze. But, once I got inside, the line was literally out the door.”

Another traveler, Kyleem Watson, said the wait began before sunrise.

“Yeah it was 4 a.m., by the time we got up there, it was around 6:20. It was just a long process,” Watson said. Asked whether the TSA wait was about two hours, Watson replied, “I would say more. I’m just estimating. I think it was more than two hours.”

Watson also pointed to the federal shutdown’s effect on TSA staffing.

“They got to pay them. And that’s the most important thing,” Watson said.

Federal employees are guaranteed to receive back pay once the shutdown ends under a law passed in 2019, though it remains unclear when the shutdown will be resolved.

FULL FORECAST: Severe storms Monday morning

Delta is offering flexible options for customers to move their travel due to the impending storms across the Southeast. To learn more, click here.

The website Hartsfield-Jackson uses to display wait times is also down, meaning passengers can not check before heading to the airport. That’s why officials are urging you to arrive at least three hours before your flight.

“When I flew into Atlanta, Detroit was fine. Like TSA worked perfectly and there were no lines or anything,” said another traveler named Katherine.

As of 11:23 p.m. Monday, here are the numbers for ATL and airports nationwide, as per FlightAware: