Winter storm delays, cancels flights at Savannah airport
Jan 10, 2025
SAVANNAH, Ga. (WSAV) - The winter weather is creating problems at the Savannah-Hilton Head International Airport, delaying and canceling almost every flight to two of the airport's most popular destinations Friday.
The airport has eight outbound flights each day to Atlanta and Charlotte each, the two biggest hubs for Savannah air travelers, with nearly all of them affected Friday, according to Lori Lynah, Director of Marketing and Air Service Development.
"Eight flights a day. You know, that's that gets you anywhere in the world," said Lynah, "Of course we have plenty of other nonstop flights as well, but those are such large hubs and there's so many opportunity for connecting."
Travelers who spoke to News 3 say they arrived at the airport in the early morning and are were stranded until the evening as they waited to fly out west.
"Well, I got here at 6:00 this morning," said Jacob Thigpen, who was flying through Atlanta to New Orleans, "My flight was supposed to leave at 8:00, and then I got text after text about delays because of the storm, and then I got on the phone with the help desk for about an hour, and they finally were able to reroute my flight. But I won't leave Atlanta until 6:00 [p.m]."
Brian Lorts and his family were in a similar situation, and were till trying to figure out a plan to get home to Missouri by way of Atlanta.
"They moved us back to a 4:45 [p.m.] possible flight getting in to St. Louis at about 11:30 tonight," said Lorts, "We have to wait and see what we're going to do from there, so we're just going to play a waiting game at this point."
Lynah said these issues will subside as the storm does but may continue into Saturday, and if you would like to switch flights, you can do that through your airline ahead of time through the airline's waiver program, something Lynah says all airlines should offer.
"You get notified by your carrier typically that that there's a waiver in place," said Lynah, "It means you can travel the day before or the day after the weather is expected. You work with them on what's available, and then that means you're not sitting here on the day of a snowstorm somewhere hoping that you're going to make your flight."