A sea of unclaimed luggage inside Terminal 7 at Los Angeles International Airport Thursday morning provided a stark illustration of flight delays and cancellations that have plagued travelers across the country ahead of the holiday weekend.
Bags and boxes from Wednesday's delays and cancellations had collected wall-to-wall in the terminal's baggage claim area, signs of travel woes blamed mostly on severe weather in other parts of the United States on what's expected to be the busiest stretch of the July 4 holiday period. The scene brought back images of the winter holiday travel season, when even more severe air travel disruptions led to widespread frustration.
There were indications that widespread backups were easing, but more than 1,000 U.S. flights had been delayed and nearly 400 had been canceled Thursday before 6:30 a.m., according to FlightAware.
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At LAX, 90 flight delays and 15 cancellations were reported early Thursday, according to FlightAware.
One traveler told NBCLA early Thursday that he's been at the airport for a day and a half. Another said an airline re-booked his family for another flight, but that won't depart until July 3.
"We just want to go home, take a shower, eat," he said.
LAX's Fourth of July travel period is Wednesday through July 10. The busiest days of that period are expected to be Thursday, when about 241,000 passengers are expected to pass through the airport; Friday, with about 245,000 passengers expected; and July 10 when about 251,000 passengers are anticipated.
"The busy summer travel season is upon us at LAX and we expect passenger volumes to reach the highest levels we have seen so far this year with an average of 228,000 daily passengers in the days before and after the Independence Day holiday,'' Justin Erbacci, CEO of Los Angeles World Airports, said in a statement Wednesday.
"Our parking structures are nearing capacity or filling up on a daily basis, so we encourage guests to take advantage of our award-winning smart parking system to pre-book a parking space in any Central Area Terminal structure or the LAX Economy Parking facility. Passengers can also make the travel journey more enjoyable by arriving early and ordering food and beverage ahead of time for pickup or delivery to the gate.''
Scattered showers and thunderstorms are expected in the Northeast later Thursday and Friday and storms are expected further south along the East Coast through Saturday. The West could get hit with similar unstable weather systems for the next several days.
The worst disruptions early Thursday are again happening on the East Coast. The FAA expects Thursday will be the heaviest holiday travel day with more than 52,500 total flights.
Unlike past disruptions that have been caused or worsened by internal airline systems, delays this week have been caused almost entirely by bad weather. Yet technology may resurface as a source of disruption this weekend
Some airline planes may be unable to fly in bad weather starting this weekend because of possible interference with 5G wireless service.
Last week, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg issued a new warning to airlines, telling them that planes that aren't outfitted with new radio altimeters — devices that measure the height of a plane above the ground — won’t be allowed to operate in limited visibility starting this Saturday because of potential interference from new 5G wireless service.
American, United, Southwest, Alaska and Frontier say all of their planes have been retrofitted, but Delta Air Lines still has about 190 planes waiting to be updated because its supplier doesn't have enough altimeters. Delta said it will schedule those planes to avoid landing where the weather might be bad to limit disruptions.
Smaller airlines that operate regional flights could also be affected by the radio interference issue, as could flights operated to the United States by foreign carriers.
