ORLANDO, Fla. – A massive winter storm affecting much of the East Coast continues to cause major delays at Orlando International Airport and will carry over to one of OIA's busiest travel days.
[MORE: Monster storm | OIA flight tracker | Weather conditions]
OIA spokeswoman Carolyn Fennell told Local 6 there were at least 83 flight cancellations on Friday due to the bad weather. As of late Friday, 54 arrival flights and 29departure flights had been canceled.
Hundreds of flights were also delayed, including a eight-and-half-hour delay on a Delta flight to New York, because of the weather.
Also, the Hyatt hotel located at the airport was sold out because of the winter storm.
Fennell says some of the food concessions at the airport planned to stay open for extended hours to accommodate the stranded passengers.
Marnie Kelly, her parents and 7-year-old daughter, Jacqueline, were trying to get home to Nashville, but their flight was delayed.
"(We're) not very hopeful right now. We're just hanging in there," said Kelly. "We're just going to play it by ear and see if it pans out. Otherwise, I guess we'll have to find a place to stay."
Others took matters into their own hands.
"We are now driving to Atlanta and then flying home from there," said stranded passenger Kacie Wilson.
The Wilsons came to Orlando for the Capital One Bowl and were supposed to fly to Indianapolis on Thursday night, but when they checked their flight online, it was canceled.
"We came to the airport just to see what we could do," said Kacie Wilson. "You couldn't get anything through their website or by calling, it was like a 50-minute wait, so we just came to the airport."
The Wilsons decided to rent a car and drive through the night. They hoped to fly out of Atlanta on Friday morning.