At BWI Marshall Airport, a sea of passengers stood in long lines, sat on the floor and tried to get some sleep where they could as they waited for hours as flights were delayed and canceled on Monday.
As of 9:15 p.m., Flightaware data showed 70% of Southwest flights nationwide were canceled and 16% were delayed, leaving only 14% of all flights as on-time takeoffs.
BWI remains one of the most affected airports in the country, as 141 departing flights were canceled, representing 44% of the airport's entire scheduled takeoffs. Another 59 flights, or 18%, were delayed.
“Not sure when we’re gonna get a flight, so it’s pretty rough,” one man said.
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One family traveling south with five children was thankful they got tablets for Christmas to keep them occupied after their flight was canceled.
“Hoping that we can get a flight, otherwise we’re looking at possibly renting a car tomorrow. But yeah, everything’s been booked. Even car rentals are booked,” Holly Abotossaway said.
Southwest Airlines said the snowstorm in Chicago and staffing shortages at a fuel vendor in Denver, Colorado, forced flight cancellations across the country.
Many passengers said they felt like they were in limbo.
“Nobody knew what was going on. There was like no directions or anything. You go to the front of the line, they didn’t know what was happening. You go to somebody for some help, they didn’t know what was happening,” AJ Jallow said. “There was like a lot of misdirection… there was a lot of confusion.”
Video from early Monday morning many say they’ve been here since 1 or 2 a.m. Some slept there, hoping they could get a flight.
Christine Workman was traveling with two children, including her 11-month-old baby.
“We were on hold for seven hours and never got through, so I figured we’d come up here, and now we get to stand in line here for several hours,” Workman said.
When News4 first met Diedra Screws, a Prince George’s County schools assistant principal, she’d been in line since 2 a.m. trying to get to Las Vegas.
“We’re gonna wait it out and then we’re going to be sensible about it and say, you know, if you can get us on a flight, fine. If you can’t, we’ll make another trip. I’ll go home to New York,” she said.
Fortunately, she got some good news: she was getting a flight.
“My luck has changed... so I’m happy,” she said.
Her husband voiced the frustration experienced by so many passengers the day after Christmas. He said he wanted airlines to “come up with a crisis management plan to implement when something like this occurs.”
Southwest Airlines called the situation "unacceptable" on Monday and sent their "heartfelt apologies for this are just beginning."
They went on to say that "operational conditions forced daily changes to our flight schedule at a volume and magnitude that still has the tools our teams use to recover the airline operating at capacity."
Southwest Airlines flight cancellations and delays continued into Tuesday morning. The airline announced it would operate one-third of its scheduled flights for the “next several days.” At about 6:30 a.m., there were 2,500 Southwest flights canceled.
At Reagan National Airport, the flight delays and cancellations caused long lines, frustrated customers and suitcases stacked up around check-in.
A Southwest flight to Orlando, Florida, was canceled and left many travelers scrambling to find another flight.
Scott Holden, who was traveling with his family to Orlando, said they were already at the gate when the flight was canceled. They said they were uncertain where their luggage was and thought they may need to retrieve it from a wall where luggage was lined up.
"No one gave us any direction, until right now, right before you guys came on the air, it’s a little frustrating, a little disconcerting," Holden said.
