Severe weather impacting holiday travelers at RSW

Reporter: Gail Levy, Lauren Leslie Writer: Paul Dolan
Published: Updated:

Holiday travelers are heading to see family and friends for the festive days ahead and many passengers are hoping to get to their destinations before severe winter weather cancels flights.

Thursday around 11 a.m., RSW was a bit crowded but TSA lines were still moving smoothly.

The arctic blast is impacting flights in every direction causing sporadic lines at the airport throughout the week.

Outbound flights to Cleveland, Colombus, Indianapolis, and St. Louis all came to a halt Thursday evening.

Similarly, people trying to get to Southwest Florida from St. Louis and Chicago have seen their flights canceled or delayed.

WINK News spoke with Rae Becker trying to get back home to New York City to sing in her choir. Becker, feeling the holiday spirit generously gave us a sneak peek of her show.

“We are singing Ding Dong Merrily on High! And you know the chorus? Like, ohhh ohhh ohhh ohhh Gloria, hosannah in Excelsis! That’s the chorus so it’s familiar for a lot of people,” Becker said.

Barbara Hilliard and her husband live in Port Charlotte.

They got to RSW two hours early in anticipation of their flight to Pittsburgh.

Lo and behold, they became a bit more familiar with the RSW airport.

“What do you mean flight canceled? No one emailed me, no one texted me…so I go to the counter and they say, “‘Oh yeah and I say oh no,”‘ Barbara said.

The dominos were falling one after another.

“It’s not only just the Pittsburgh flight. I’m seeing Denver Chicago…” Barbara said.

Thomas Westervelt from New Jersey experienced the joys of refreshing his flight app all day long hunting for new information or updates.

“I was supposed to fly out at seven and get to New Jersey by 10 now I’m arriving into New Jersey basically at midnight,” Westervelt said.

Like Becker’s choir in the cold New York City weather, the show must go on, but at RSW, people are hopeful the flights continue to go on and on.

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