Holiday travel and cold temperatures continue to impact flights in and out of Hartfield-Jackson International Airport on Monday.
Although operations at the airport improved Monday, more than 200 flights departing or arriving at Hartfield-Jackson were canceled by Monday afternoon, close to the 300 canceled on Christmas Day, according to FlightAware.
Hartsfield-Jackson spokesman Andrew Gobeil said most of the cancellations are not a result of anything at the airport and could be airline related, departing airport related or something else. A brutal winter storm system brought arctic temperatures and frozen precipitation across the U.S., though the Atlanta area avoided the white stuff.
The ripple effects of the storm system were felt across the nation. According to FlightAware, more than 17,000 flights were delayed and about 5,500 were canceled nationwide by Monday afternoon.
Delta, the No. 1 carrier out of Atlanta, said some cancellations are a result of damage to airport infrastructure, frozen equipment and continued restrictions in airports across the country, with low temperatures also impacting catering, fueling and gate equipment.
“Delta people have been working hard this holiday to get our customers safely to their destinations, and we are seeing steady improvement of our operations today,” the airline said in a statement.
Southwest Airlines spokesperson Chris Perry said the airline, the No. 2 carrier out of Atlanta, is still experiencing disruptions across its network as a result of the lingering effect of the winter storm. Perry said the airline is trying to re-accommodate as many customers as possible, based on available space.
According to FlightAware, nearly 2,700 Southwest Airlines flights, or two-thirds of its schedule, had been canceled as of Monday at 4 p.m. That was about 10 times more canceled flights as any other major U.S. carrier.
Airports in Baltimore, Houston and Denver were harder hit than Atlanta by the Southwest disruptions.
Flights at the Atlanta airport are not the only thing that have been impacted due to freezing cold temperatures during the holiday weekend. A water pipe burst on Concourse E on Sunday and forced a gate to temporarily shut down.
Gobeil said the airport has also been dealing with water pressure issues, resulting in some concessions being impacted.
“We’ve been dealing with the water pressure issues that we are continuing to monitor. There has been minimal to no impact on flight operations at this time,” Gobeil said.
Emergency alarms tripped by low water pressure warnings may sound in the airport over the next 24 hours, the airport said in a Monday night tweet. Personnel will respond, investigate and reset the alarms.
Three concessioners on Concourse A – Chick-fil-A, Gordon Biersch and Varasano Pizza – were closed around noon Monday due to low water pressure.
Security wait times at the airport were between 10 to 20 minutes around 6 p.m. Monday. Travelers are still encouraged to arrive at least two hours early for domestic flights and three hours for international flights.
“Early this morning, (security wait time) was relatively fine. I expect we’ll be fine this afternoon,” Gobeil said. “Tomorrow will be busy.”
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