Hundred Of Flights Delayed To And From CLT Sunday, And It Was Like Nothing I’ve Ever Seen
A quick weekend trip to Florida turned into deja vu when for the second straight Florida trip, my flight got delayed. And then got delayed again. And again. I finally…
A quick weekend trip to Florida turned into deja vu when for the second straight Florida trip, my flight got delayed. And then got delayed again. And again. I finally boarded my flight after the time I should have originally been arriving back in Charlotte. Only to then get delayed again for another 20 minutes. Finally, we arrived back in Charlotte, and the scene when I deplaned was like nothing I'd ever seen. You know the crowd trying to exit a football game that went into overtime and everyone stayed? You can't really move even though everyone is trying to go in the same direction? Imagine that but people going in every direction. And this was just before 10 pm at night. There were lines and lines of people waiting to board flights, people attempting to run without the room to do so to get on a connecting flight. And this is all due to the sheer number of flights delayed and canceled out of CLT.
Storms Across The Country
Apparently, the delays were mostly due to storms that caused a ripple effect for flights across the country. When I was sitting on the plane the pilot mentioned there was a stoppage of all northbound flights at the time. Channel 9 reports that Saturday there were more than 500 delays and at least 40 cancellations at Charlotte-Douglas. Additionally, on Sunday there were 325 flights delayed and more than 60 cancellations at CLT airport.
https://twitter.com/FAANews/status/1680583218087469058?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1680583218087469058%7Ctwgr%5Ef8ce12174a22f69162bab748616b4859e7f07c26%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.wsoctv.com%2Fnews%2Flocal%2Fdelays-cancellations-continue-rise-charlotte-douglas-airport%2FSGPLWKBKV5C3NOS5O77KNXZNPY%2F
Obviously, any time you fly you have to expect the possibility of delays or cancelations. It does seem that these mass delays are getting more and more common. If it's not weather, it's system outages, and staff shortages. If you are flying in for a certain event or meeting you almost have to give yourself an extra day just in case something happens. How much confidence do you have in the airlines currently? I know if it's somewhere that is within a reasonable driving distance and I have the time, I'm more likely than ever to go that route.
Charlotte Douglas International Airport Is The 7th Busiest In The World New Data Shows
Yes, you read that correctly. New data shows that Charlotte Douglas International Airport is the 7th busiest airport, not in the US but worldwide. This data comes from Airports Council International who recently released their yearly rankings. This is based on data from 2022. They actually rank the busiest airports based on a few different metrics this includes lists calculated by the following:
So which one of these did Charlotte Douglas International Airport rank 7th in? The last one - aircraft movements. This is actually down two spots from 2021 when CLT ranked 5th. In 2022 505,589 flights took off or landed in Charlotte. That's a lot of planes. I was on a few of them but nowhere near that amount! One thing I found interesting about this data is that for both total passengers as well as aircraft movements these lists are very top-heavy with US cities. Atlanta took both of those titles. This confirms that while that drive to Atlanta from Charlotte is terrible, it's probably better than flying! Does it surprise you that Charlotte Douglas International Airport is the 7th busiest in the world? Keep reading to see the full top 1o airports for aircraft movements below and read the full methodology from Airports Council International here.
10. Istanbul, TR (IST)
Total Aircraft Movements: 425,890
2021 Rank: 33
9. New York, NY (JFK)
Total Aircraft Movements: 448,847
2021 Rank: 27
8. Miami, FL (MIA)
Total Aircraft Movements: 458,478
2021 Rank: 9
7. Charlotte, NC (CLT)
Total Aircraft Movements: 505,589
2021 Rank: 5
6. Los Angeles, CA (LAX)
Total Aircraft Movements: 556,913
2021 Rank: 6
5. Las Vegas, NV (LAS)
Total Aircraft Movements: 581,116
2021 Rank: 7
4. Denver, CO (DEN)
Total Aircraft Movements: 607,786
2021 Rank: 4
3. Dallas/Fort Worth, TX (DFW)
Total Aircraft Movements: 565,676
2021 Rank: 3
2. Chicago, IL (ORD)
Total Aircraft Movements: 711,561
2021 Rank: 2
1. Atlanta, GA (ATL)
Total Aircraft Movements: 724,145
2021 Rank: 1
