As thousands of cancellations and even more delays Friday, airlines spent Christmas Eve playing catch up to get holiday travelers to their destinations.
We are continuing to track travel at Norfolk International Airport. The vibe was a little more cheerful on Saturday.
When our crews arrived at the airport today, there were still plenty of people around, but the feeling was a whole lot lighter. There were folks dressed festively, and a lot more smiles, at least compared to Friday and some of the chaos we saw with that weather.
But workers here tell us Christmas Eve morning looked a little bit different.
“A lot of people camping out this morning, on the floor, on the chairs. It was pretty crazy,” airport Starbucks employee, Olivia Fisher, tells us.
We asked if it was better now, and her response was, "Oh absolutely."
That was when Donna Trace and Olivia Fisher arrived to work at the airport around 4 a.m., Saturday.
They were there fresh off a Friday that, according to the flight tracking website, Flight Aware, saw nearly 6,000 cancellations nationwide.
That number was a little over 2,000 Saturday afternoon.
It was far less at Norfolk International, where the flight boards only showed a handful of red.
Kendall Faulkner's flight to Providence is a go after visiting family.
“Everyone got together, had meals, we did Secret Santa, it was nice,” she said.
Like Faulkner, most of the people we ran into said they'd always planned to fly out Christmas Eve or welcome family into town for the holiday.
Most disruptions were relatively minor, like for Emi Gibson's grandpa.
“…Was in Vegas and he was delayed there,” Gibson tells us.
The Rookes' kids and grandkids are trading in Michigan's single digit temps for the balmy 20s in Virginia Beach.
“They were supposed to leave at 8:30 but they left at 9:14 I think, but they’re still scheduled to get here on time. I think probably de-icing the planes in Detroit is what caused them the delay to leave,” Harold Rookes, who lives in Virginia Beach said.
Just minutes after our interview was their heartwarming reunion.
But, Rookes may be onto something.
Delta, the airline with the most flights out of Norfolk airport, said in a release that frozen equipment was just one challenge getting back on track Saturday.
Delta expects operations to get better through the weekend.
