ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) – Ground delays have been issued for all flights heading into Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport on Saturday due to staffing shortages, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
FAA reports that flights coming into Atlanta will, on average, be delayed multiple hours at their departure airports beginning around 4 p.m. and lasting through 3 a.m. Sunday.
The longest reported delay on Saturday was nearly 14.5 hours.
Saturday was the second day flights were reduced by 4%, but Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said that number could spike to 20% around Thanksgiving if the government shutdown does not end soon.
RELATED: FAA-mandated flight reductions bring mixed bag of experiences for Atlanta travelers
In Atlanta, around 640 flights were delayed and around 350 flights were cancelled.
“Super frustrated at the moment,” Melinda Pope said.
Pope drove in from Auburn, Alabama, to pick up her daughter, son-in-law and three-month-old grandson.
Instead of an arrival from Denver just after 3 p.m. Saturday, they were diverted to Birmingham because of weather.
Hartsfield-Jackson also had an 81-minute ground stop on Saturday.
“Instead of driving here it would have been closer for me to drive to Birmingham to pick her up,” Pope said.
After sitting on the tarmac for hours in Birmingham, Pope’s family finally arrived in Atlanta hours later.
Mike and Sherry Smith will spend the night in a College Park hotel on Saturday night.
“We’re very happy that it was on the backend,” Sherry said.
They are fresh off a weeklong Mediterranean cruise. Atlanta was their last stop before a 5:20 p.m. Delta flight home to northwest Arkansas.
“We were down at our gate and it was roughly about 30 minutes before time to begin to load and they just made the announcement that the flight had been cancelled,” Mike said.
On Sunday, more than 175 flights have already been cancelled.
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