SAN DIEGO — Some families kicked off the holiday weekend by spending hours stuck at the San Diego International Airport (SAN).
The "frustrating" situation, according to one traveler, was a result of winter weather sweeping across most of the country.
Meanwhile, San Diego remained sunny and about 60 degrees.
According to Flight Aware, nearly 150 flights were canceled at (SAN) before 8:00 p.m. on Friday.
One man, Jake Ryan, traveling from San Diego to Portland, Oregon to see his family said his flight was cancelled five minutes before boarding.
"There is a six hour wait to try to get a new flight for tomorrow through a different airline potentially, and the trains are all booked. I looked into training up there, so I might have to make the 16 hour drive," said Ryan, desperate to see his brother, who is in the AmeriCorps, for the holidays.
HOLIDAY #TRAVEL NIGHTMARE ✈️❄️ in full effect! Even sunny San Diego is seeing the snowball effect of cancellations across the country. A lot of people hoping they’ll make it home for #Christmas somehow. This is the line for customer assistance. @10News pic.twitter.com/y0Fnu3xH0H
— Natalie Chuck KGTV (@NatalieChuck) December 23, 2022
The average delay times for both arrivals and departures at SAN fluctuated throughout the day, while the lines for customer assistance stretched into the outdoors.
"We were going to get a connection through Charlotte, but with the weather American (Airlines) advised us to maybe look at other routes, so we then changed it to going through Dallas and then that flight got delayed," said one woman waiting in line to get help.
Travelers said it is unlikely they will get rebooked for a flight before Christmas, if not after.
