Hartsfield-Jackson International resumed full operations as the world’s busiest airport Friday morning, with waylaid passengers resuming their trips and holiday weekend travelers filling the airport.
Airport, airline and security officials all prepared for big crowds Friday.
All three security checkpoints in the domestic terminal were open Friday, with some lines filling queues but not stretching into the airport atrium and beyond as they did Thursday afternoon. Airport officials had additional stanchions and queues set up in the terminal in preparation for lines to extend well beyond the security checkpoint Friday. Interim airport general manager Miguel Southwell advised travelers to arrive three to four hours before their flights to be safe.
But in the early afternoon, security checkpoint wait times remained within about 20 minutes or less.
Dozens of travelers again stayed over in the airport terminal Thursday night. Airline operations in Atlanta are closer to normal Friday, with about 65 flight cancellations, about two-thirds due to the storm now in the Northeast.
Pablo Landrau of Washington D.C. got waylaid Thursday in Atlanta on a trip back from Kansas City and was among those staying at Hartsfield-Jackson overnight. He ran into difficulties getting a hotel room, “so that’s why I had to stay here.”
Some travelers were frustrated after two days of flight cancellations and being stuck at the airport.
“I’m just tired…. exhausted,” said traveler Darwyn Williams, who is retired from the Army and got stuck in Miami for two days and in the Atlanta airport for one night while en route from Seoul, Korea to see his mother in Alabama. After flying from Seoul to Dallas then Miami, with his flight canceled for two days he ended up sleeping in the Miami airport for one night and staying at a hotel in Miami another night. Then he arrived in Atlanta on Thursday to take a Greyhound bus to Alabama but said he found the Greyhound desk closed. Greyhound has had service cancellations due to the storm.
“This is really hurting people in their personal lives,” Williams said. And, it’s “costing people money,” whether lost business, missed vacation time or other expenses.
Williams, frustrated with the shutdown of services, said “I just think they need to work on their infrastructure a little bit around here.”
Airport officials were working to ease some of the stress for travelers, with city and airport staff handing out roses to women waiting in security lines and waiting in the terminal for Valentine’s Day during certain periods of the day.
Southwell, who came up with the idea to hand out the roses to passengers after a difficult few days for travelers, said the roughly 5,000 flowers procured cost about $5,000.
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