PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. — For the second day in a row, the Federal Aviation Administration has issued a "ground delay" at Palm Beach International Airport amid heavy travel after Christmas and storms nationwide.
The federal agency's National Airspace System Status listed an average delay of 223 minutes "due to airport volume" through 10:59 p.m. On Tuesday, delays also averaged four hours at one point.
There were 26 departure and 17 arrival delays through Thursday afternoon, according to the airport as of 5 p.m.
There were no "ground delays" listed for the other two South Florida airports, Fort Lauderdale-Holywood International Airport and Miami International Airport though there were backups Tuesday.
Also there are two "ground delays" at airports in Southwest Florida.
At Southwest Florida International Airport in Lee County there is a 30-minute "ground delay" and increasing and 203 minutes at Naples Airport.
And like Tuesday, there are flight delays at Tampa International Airport though no "ground delay"
The FAA status lists ground stop delay/program possible at the three South Florida airports starting after 7 a.m. Thursday.
Nationally, there are 6,845 delays within and out of the United States with 197 cancellations through Wednesday, according to Flight Aware. Southwest Airlines, which has a hub in Denver where there was bad weather, accounted for 1,687 delays.
The FAA forecasted 45,185 flights in U.S. airspace on Wednesday and rising to 48,018 Saturday and dropping to 32,078 Sunday.
The agency explains the "ground delays" on its website: "Ground Delay Programs (GDP) are implemented to control air traffic volume to airports where the projected traffic demand is expected to exceed the airport's acceptance rate for a lengthy period of time. Lengthy periods of demand exceeding acceptance rate are normally a result of the airport's acceptance rate being reduced for some reason. The most common reason for a reduction in acceptance rate is adverse weather such as low ceilings and visibility."
The FAA has been spacing out flights to minimize congestion in the airspace in Florida.
And there have been a large number of travelers passing through security points.
