Multiple flights delayed several hours at MSY amid Thanksgiving passenger surge

KENNER, La. (WGNO) — Flights are coming in and out of MSY as Thanksgiving travelers crowd the airport.

Lots of flights are delayed one way or the other. Some even being delayed for multiple hours.

“I actually live in north Louisiana but I fly into here because the rates are good except for this,” said David Belknap talking about the congestion at MSY. He’s one of an estimated 24,000 people who are traveling through the airport this Thanksgiving.

“I’ll fly back out of here Monday, and I’m already kind of dreading it,” said Belknap.

Frankie Fata touched down in New Orleans on Wednesday after flying all the way from Guyana. It’s a trip that normally takes half a day, but this time took a full day. Many flights were full so he had to make a few extra stops along the way.

“I had to fly all the way up to New York, then New York to Atlanta, then Atlanta to Louisiana so instead of doing our direct trip we had to plan accordingly,” said Fata. “One of the things they were doing is they made everyone check in their carry on luggage because it was so crowded.”

Sandy Winborn and Stacy Walker just got off their holiday, flying back from Barbados, but not without running into some issues.

“The flight going to New Orleans was delayed about an hour and a half,” said Winborn.

Although the pair did not know the reason for the delay they say they can only assume its beacuse of the amount of people or luggage on board.

“They were asking people if they wanted to possibly leave on a later flight, they were offering money, vouchers,” said Walker.