NEW YORK — Stormy weather caused travel headaches across the Tri-State Area’s airports this weekend.
Red and orange were not the colors travelers wanted to see on the flight status monitors.
Sven Verhulst landed at John F. Kennedy International Airport on Sunday from Belgium only to have his connection flight to Salt Lake City, Utah, canceled.
“Something is going very wrong here,’ he said.
He and five other coworkers were supposed to be there for a work event Monday morning and now have to make cancellations and re-arrangements because they won’t get there until Monday afternoon.
On top of that, Verhulst says, “I have no baggage because they, first they told me it’s stuck at Brussels. Now they say it’s stuck at customs. I don’t know where my bag is.”
He and other Delta passengers were waiting for hours on the baggage check line. Kennedy Airport posted a weather advisory on social media, responding to concerned passengers that thunderstorms across the region caused the delays.
“The travel is for work. If it was for holiday with my wife, we would be very frustrated,” Verhulst said.
“I’m just drained, but I’m trying to stay positive, I suppose,” said traveler Hannah Kochanowski, from Pittsburgh.
For some travelers, these cancellations and delays mean extra paid time off from work they didn’t budget for.
“Yeah, an extra day off, so I have to move some meetings around. It is what it is,” Kochanowski said.
Kochanowski’s trying to get home to Pittsburgh after a trip to Milan, Italy. Her connection flight home was canceled, and she had to make arrangements to stay in the city.
For some traveling with Verhulst, it’s their first time in the United States, so they’re going to try to make the most of it.
“Maybe we can go to see New York in a flash, but we’ll see,” Verhulst said.
