Memorial Day brings hundreds of travelers through Pittsburgh International Airport amid cancelations

It was a busy Monday morning for travelers at Pittsburgh International Airport.

“This is the longest line I’ve seen when we were coming here from Dallas there was no line no nothing plenty of folks from TSA it was great,” said Michael Deen, who’s traveling to Dallas.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t great for everyone. Airlines predicted this weekend to be the start of huge crowds as travel restrictions ease and pandemic fatigue outweighs the fear of contracting COVID-19.

“Way more people today than when we came on Friday that’s for sure we have not had any delays but I know some people out of New York did,” said Charles Guarra, who’s traveling to Florida.

According to Flight Tracker, more than 6,000 flights were canceled over the holiday weekend with dozens of them in Pittsburgh. Airlines said it’s for a number of reasons from COVID-19 outbreaks, staffing issues and weather.

Those Channel 11 spoke to traveling in Pittsburgh are just thankful the cancellations weren’t worse as they attempted to get home for the holiday.

“We got here a couple hours early just because we anticipated this kind of travel so overall good,” Deen said.

AAA expected 39 million people to go more than 50 miles or more this weekend, which is three million more than last year.

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