Flight cancellations and delays continue day after Christmas, impacting travelers at MSP and nationwide

This year’s white Christmas turned into a headache for many travelers.

Hundreds of flight cancellations and delays over the long weekend left many families stranded for the holidays, and the troubles are spilling over into Monday. The majority of flights canceled are Southwest flights, but other airlines have also canceled due to issues surrounding the winter storm.

“Disappointing and a lot of time and money lost,” said Amy Martineck, a traveler at MSP Airport.

Martineck and her daughter Abby have been trying to catch a flight to New York without any luck. Cancelation after cancelation meant they spent Christmas at the airport.

“You plan something, you know you’re taking a chance,” Martineck said. “We take a week to do all the things – things we wanted to do, so you know, we’ve been planning and getting the tickets for things several months ago, obviously knowing we live in the cold and snow in the winter, so it’s always a gamble.”

Martineck’s husband won that gamble. He caught a flight to New York Monday morning, which is expected to be the busiest travel day of the holiday stretch, with 36,000 passengers expected to hit the skies out of MSP based on bookings.

“Late last night on the Delta app, my husband found a flight, one seat this morning, so we raced back this morning hoping to send her to New York, but it was his name, so we couldn’t switch,” she said.

“This was kind of our only Christmas plans this year, so it’s kind of rough,” said Abby Martineck.

Like many, the Martineck’s are hoping to catch a break as the country begins to thaw out.

“I’m just hoping that we get there and it goes well once we get there and that we can get back,” said Abby Martineck.