Ann Conlon was trying to get back to Oregon on Monday morning, and Demasti Orlando and Janice MacMillan were trying to get to Canada. They were among the few who found themselves out of luck. The last commercial flight out of Bradley International Airport on Monday was to Atlanta.
Conlon, who came to Connecticut to visit her daughter, said she tried to change her flight twice without any luck. The earliest flight she may catch is scheduled for 10 a.m. Wednesday.
On Monday morning, she was calling a shuttle and headed back to the Econolodge where she stayed last night.
Orlando, who was in Hartford for the Furry Convention, said he’s trying to get in touch with some friends to see if he could hitch a ride with them back to Alberta.
“This was a vacation gone wrong,” Orlando said.
He said his flight was supposed to leave at 6 a.m. Monday, but was canceled. He had been waiting at the airport since midnight, but Air Canada — which also is his employer — pulled its planes out of the airport Sunday night.
“They’re taking it very seriously,” Orlando said.
MacMillan, who was visiting her college-age son, said she was able to print off her boarding pass Sunday at 10 p.m., so she was a little confused when she arrived at Bradley on Monday morning to discover all flights had been canceled. She was able to rebook her flight for Wednesday afternoon. However, she said she would have stayed in bed at the hotel if she had known.
John Wallace, director of communications for Bradley International Airport, said the airport will remain open for emergency flights and diversions, but commercial carriers have canceled all of their flights.
Wallace said the airport will continue to be staffed even though there won’t be a lot of commercial flight activity.
He anticipates commercial carriers will resume service around noon or 1 p.m. Tuesday afternoon.
