Travelers experiencing delays ahead of Memorial Day Weekend

Complaints are already pouring in about travel delays and chaos aboard flights, and we’re still days away from the Memorial Day weekend rush.

AAA anticipates 958,000 DMV residents are expected to travel this weekend.

On Sunday, dozens of passengers on an American Airlines flight were forced to wait on board for hours due to inclement weather passing through the area.

AAA predicts 39.2M Americans will travel for Memorial Day

Video taken on board an American Airlines flight early this Sunday morning shows passengers on board. Those passengers say they were supposed to land and exit the plane around 11:50 p.m.  Instead, they were reportedly held on the plane until 3:00 a.m. Monday after what was supposed to be about an hour-long flight from Cleveland, Ohio.

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The passenger bill of rights requires airlines to let passengers off the aircraft within three hours for domestic travel and four hours for international travel.

American Airlines says the delay was due to inclement weather, but passengers tell FOX 5 it was due to a staffing shortage.  

National Security expert JJ Green says a similar situation happened to him during his travels from Europe to Baltimore Washington International airport. He was also flying on American Airlines and believes the delays and cancellations are not isolated incidents.

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Nevertheless, travel industry experts say travelers should expect more delays and potential cancellations as we head into the holiday weekend.

AAA tells FOX 5 that Thursday is expected to be the busiest travel day across the board this week.

FOX 5’s Tisha Lewis reports the best advice for travelers, aside from the obvious which is patience, is to download your airlines’ app to get real-time information including delays and cancellations.

AAA predicts nearly 90% of DMV residents are taking a road trip this holiday despite record-high gas prices.