FL Flight Delays Continue Wednesday Morning Across State

TAMPA, FL — Hundreds of flights were delayed Tuesday at airports across Florida, impacting thousands of travelers on the day after Christmas. Some delays can still be expected Wednesday morning.

The delays are caused by the Federal Aviation Administration implementing a delay program, Tampa International Airport (TPA) posted to X, formerly Twitter.

These ground delay programs are used to control air traffic volume to airports where the projected traffic demand is expected to exceed its acceptance rate for a lengthy period of time, according to the FAA website. Flights into these airports are then given new controlled departure times from the agency.

Tuesday’s delays included more than 200 flights delayed at TPA, most of them from Southwest Airlines, according to WTSP.

Palm Beach International Airport (PBI), Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport and Miami International Airport (MIA) also each saw hundreds of delays Tuesday, WPTV reported.

While arriving and departing flights seemed to be mostly operating on time at many Florida airports Wednesday morning, there were still significant delays at TPA.

As of 8 a.m., TPA’s flight tracker showed 44 flights scheduled to arrive between Wednesday morning and Thursday morning were delayed, while 40 departing flights were delayed.

At St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport, three arrivals and two departures were delayed, while at Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport, there were three arrivals and one departing flight delayed through at least about 11:45 a.m.

Orlando International Airport showed six delayed and two canceled departures Wednesday, as well as three canceled arriving flights with none delayed, so far.

In south Florida, MIA showed no delays at all as of 8 a.m. At PBI, three arrivals were canceled and nine delayed, while one departing flight was canceled and 13 were delayed.

TPA advises travelers to check directly with their airlines for the latest information on their specific flights.