San Diego

Midwest Winter Storm Causes Delays at San Diego International Airport

This Thanksgiving weekend was the highest Thanksgiving travel volume in more than a decade, according to AAA

As a winter storm slammed the Midwest, delays and cancelations were common at airports across the country, including at San Diego International Airport on Sunday. 

Determined travelers at San Diego International Airport tried to make their flights while Winter Storm Bruce was just as persistent, wreaking havoc across the nation's midsection, from the plains to the midwest, before reaching New England.

Blizzard conditions across much of Nebraska and parts of Kansas, Iowa and Missouri have canceled 600 flights headed to or from the U.S. by Sunday morning in the central plains and Great Lakes region, according to the flight-tracking website FlightAware.

Some planned ahead when they saw the storm approaching. John Linn rerouted his son's flight home through Houston. The flight originally had a layover in Chicago.

"Which, obviously, I think is a better choice now," he said.

Some travelers, however, were out of luck. At Chicago's O'Hare International Airport more than 700 flights were canceled Sunday.

"They canceled my flight to Chicago on one airline so I had to come over book another airline," Kara Robinson said. "Now, I'm going back to the other airline and hopefully I can get my money back."

Mike Sardo, a visitor from Canada, had an entirely different approach to the delays.

"I was supposed to fly home today at noon and yesterday I said to myself why would I go back to Toronto?" he said. "The weather is much nicer here in San Diego than minus-20 in Toronto so I decided to stay."

This Thanksgiving weekend was the highest Thanksgiving travel volume in more than a decade, according to AAA. More than 54 million people traveled 50 miles or more from home — the most since 2005, and up from 2.5 million from last year.

"It was definitely the worst day to travel," Robinson said.

Few flights into and out of San Diego International Airport continued to be canceled into Monday and more delays were expected. 

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