Flights may be back in the air, but travelers at the Reno-Tahoe International Airport are still recovering from the ground stop on Friday.
“Just trying to figure out whether or not we even have a flight today,” Steve Olson says.
"Flight on, off. it was both, right?” George Romero adds. “I hope it's on this morning, but we'll see when I get to the gate."
Over 13,000 flights have been impacted nationwide on Sunday, airlines scramble to reassign flight crews and reschedule flights.
FlightAware reports over 7,100 delays and 6,000 cancellations. That includes dozens of flights at the Reno-Tahoe International Airport. Rental companies there say the rampant changes of plans have dwindled their available stock of cars.
It’s swept flyers into a whirlwind of uncertainty.
“She wasn't able to check in,” Olson says, speaking of his co-traveler Bobbie Soper. “We came out about six hours before our flight this morning to make sure we get something."
Olson and Soper are returning to Atlanta. Their flight is in limbo.
“Delayed, then suspended. Now we're just in question, trying to get it to you whether or not we have a standby,” Olson says. “Our tickets shuffled and disappeared."
And they're not alone.
“We were afraid this would happen,” says Judy Yates.
Yates and her husband were supposed to take off from RNO, heading to Los Angeles, on Saturday morning.
“We've been checking all evening, all morning,” she says.
Saturday is their grandson's 5th birthday, and the whole family planned to go to Disneyland. But Southwest Flight WN 1629 wouldn't play ball.
“They let us come all the way to the airport, get parked, sit for half an hour, and they canceled. No other flights available today,” Yates says.
Yates says they're trying to book a flight for Sunday. The other option would be to drive to SoCal instead. That's practical for the younger side of the family, but not her.
“My husband and I can't do that. We just don't — it’s an eight-hour drive in a car to Disneyland. So, my grandson's probably going to cry and want us to come."
Yates feels her airline could have handled the situation better.
“I mean, these are extraordinary circumstances, but Southwest should have known because they talked about the staffing problem last night,” she says.
While flights are back on, travelers are asked to give themselves extra time and prepare ahead because a lot of airports across the country are still trying to return back to normal.
