AUSTIN (KXAN) — Hundreds of Texas flights have been delayed or canceled due to severe weather brought by Tropical Storm Beryl.
Corpus Christi resident Zuleika Soler and her partner booked a summer trip to Europe months before becoming aware Hurricane Beryl was expected to make landfall on the Texas coast. Now, their return flight has been canceled, and there are no flights available to book until Wednesday.
“So definitely by Thursday, Friday, I was starting to get worried. So we actually tried calling to see if we can get a flight sooner than what we planned, which was Monday, because we had a feeling this would happen that it would get canceled because it made landfall today,” Soler told KXAN. “But they didn’t have anything. They didn’t have anything sooner. It seems like a lot of people might have beat us to it and beat us to getting flights sooner.”
But, Soler and her partner weren’t the only travelers to experience this kind of delay. More than 1,400 flights have been canceled and over 400 flights have been delayed in Texas alone, according to flightdelay.com, an air traffic control system database.
Soler said she wasn’t able to prepare ahead of time for this extended trip Beryl caused, making things difficult for her back home.
“I have a cat sitter who was taking care of my cats. She lives along Ocean Drive in Corpus Christi, right by the bay waters. She had to evacuate, her and her family,” she said. “I had nobody to take care of my cats and I was worried about them, and then I was also worried about that my cats losing power.”
United Airlines ranked number one with the most number of canceled flights, totaling over 400. Southwest Airlines came in second place with more than 300 canceled flights.
Airlines and airports are encouraging travelers to stay on top of weather updates and monitor their flight status before heading to the airport. Travelers can keep an eye on flight details directly through their airline or on the airport website, or look online for an overview on all airport delays and cancelations.
KXAN reached out to the Federal Aviation Administration for details on how long these delays are expected to last. We will update this story once we’ve received an answer.