Travelers face cancellations and delays at Atlanta airport

Travelers plan for headaches at busy Atlanta airport

It's expected to be the busiest Fourth of July travel weekend since pre-pandemic. Cancellations and delays are piling up in Atlanta.

ATLANTA - Some travelers were stranded at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, caught up in a wave of July 4th travel issues.

Atlanta's airport prepared this week for a projected 1.7 million passengers. To add to the volume of travelers, pilots picketed at the airport. Delta pilots say they are "beyond exhausted" working to meet flight demands and demanded better working conditions and pay raises.

By 7 p.m. FlightAware showed there were 193 delayed flights and 39 cancellations in Atlanta.

TSA CONFISCATES HUNDDREDS OF GUNS AT ATLANTA AIRPORT

The majority of Saturday's delays involved Delta flights. A Delta spokesperson address travel issues in a Saturday afternoon statement.

"Delta teams continue to safely manage through the compounding factors of inclement weather and air traffic control delays, which impact available flight crew duty time. Canceling a flight is always our last resort, and we sincerely apologize to our customers for any disruption to their travel plans. Delta automatically rebooks customers to the next best available itinerary – additional changes to flight plans can be made directly through the Fly Delta app or on delta.com."

AAA predicts 47.9 million people will travel between Friday and Monday, and about 3.55 million of those will fly. Delta Air Lines even took the unusual step this week of warning travelers that there could be problems over the holiday weekend.