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Winter storms in the U.S. lead to more than 100 flight disruptions at Tampa International Airport

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Updated  January 16, 2024 7:36am EST
Tampa
FOX 13 News

Winter storms impacts TPA flights

Some passengers were stuck at Tampa International Airport for hours after winter storms canceled flights across the country. Jordan Bowen reports.

TAMPA, Fla. - Winter storms across the country caused interruptions for more than 100 flights at Tampa International Airport on Monday.

Couches were full inside terminals at TPA with some passengers forced to wait hours for their flights.

"It's awful. Not fun at all. You know when you're at the end of your trip, and you just want to go home, no fun," passenger Cathrina Mugford said.

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Mugford and her daughter Bianca were set to fly home to Canada on Monday morning after visiting Disney World for the first time but, like many, their flight was impacted by winter weather across the country. 

At it's peak Monday, TPA had a total of 78 flight delays and 32 flight cancelations.

"I'm not a person that likes to wait for that long," passenger Josh Castillo said. "I was kind of debating on if I want to just cancel the flight and maybe try again tomorrow, but I'm pretty sure tomorrow's going to be just as bad, so I might as well just wait it out."

Castillo and his wife were set to head back home to Dallas, Texas early Monday, but their flight continued to be delayed. As of Monday evening, the Dallas-Fort Worth airport was one of the airports with the most canceled flights, with a total of 213 incoming flights canceled.

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Meanwhile, Mugford and her daughter are now set to fly into Montreal on Monday night but say once they get there they'll have to sleep in the airport to catch their connection home to Prince Albert Island, which isn't until Tuesday morning.

"When it's more than a two-hour layover, then you have to pick your bags up. So now we got to go pick our bags up. We'll have our bags until three hours before the next flight and then recheck the bags. So yeah, big inconvenience for sure," Mugford said.

For anyone flying out of TPA on Tuesday, airport officials said travelers should double-check their flight time before heading to the airport as there could be a similar amount of delays and cancelations.