Travelers stranded in Caribbean as US military operation sends airlines scrambling to add flights

By Gordon Ebanks, Pete Muntean, Alexandra Skores, CNN

(CNN) — The US military operation that led to the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, also left stranded tourists wondering how to get home — or to their next destination — after the FAA temporarily closed airspace over the Caribbean.

Julie Hurwitz was one of many left with a travel-induced headache after airlines canceled more than 425 flights in and out of the Caribbean on Saturday, with over half of them to and from Puerto Rico according to Cirium, an aviation analytics company.

The news for Hurwitz came via a 3 a.m. Delta Air Lines notification on her phone, which declared her return flight to Atlanta was canceled “with no information, really,” she said. She had just spent a week with extended family in St. John on the US Virgin Islands.

“I found out about the whole situation from other people,” said Hurwitz.

Though the FAA has since lifted flying restrictions for commercial carriers, airlines have begun adding additional flights after the cancellation left customers scrambling during one of the busiest travel times of the year.

Delta has asked passengers without same-day tickets to avoid airports due to the “physical space limitations of many Caribbean-region airports.”

Delta, which had the most flight cancelations of any US carrier on Sunday according to FlightAware, says it has “proactively added more than 2,600 seats through extra flights across its Caribbean network for Monday.” The airline said it hopes to have “all affected customers reaccommodated by Tuesday.”

Unsure of what else to do, Hurwitz’s party of 12 searched for a place to stay, as the adults in the family called out of work. Even camping became a possibility.

She’s hoping their new flight, now scheduled for Tuesday, leaves as planned.

“My niece’s fifth birthday is on Tuesday, so we’re hoping that it doesn’t delay her party,” Hurwitz said.

After their vacation in Anguilla, Kelly and John Maher, from Grosse Pointe, Michigan, were about to board a ferry Saturday that would have taken them to their airport in Saint Maarten, when they found out neither their flight, nor any other American commercial aircraft, would be leaving that day.

With a cancellation notice that left them with more questions, they were left to rely on “whispering amongst the people who are waiting for the ferry,” for a potential explanation, John Maher said. He said they heard chatter about “something going on based on the military action that the US government took.’”

“Everything’s shut down,” he said.

Oscar-winning actor Leonardo DiCaprio was also counted among the beleaguered passengers left without easy options to get back to the continental United States. He had to miss the Palm Springs International Film Festival due to travel disruptions, a festival volunteer told CNN. The airspace closure grounded his flight out of St. Barts, reported Variety.

After Saturday’s chaos, flights are more seamlessly leaving from Caribbean airports again. 57% of flights departing Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport in San Juan — 200 in total — were canceled Saturday, compared to just 4% — or 23 total — on Sunday, according to FlightAware.

“(I)t’s all hands on deck,” American Airlines said in a statement, announcing added seats across routes in the Caribbean, and the largest model of aircraft in its fleet, the Boeing 777-300, to help ease travel disruptions.

The airline added a total of nearly 7,000 seats with 43 extra flights to boost travel capacity, it said in a statement. On Monday, American says it will operate two extra “interisland flights” from Anguilla and the British Virgin Islands to San Juan, Puerto Rico. American is operating extra flights from San Juan to Miami on Boeing 777-300s, the largest airplane in the company’s fleet.

United, JetBlue and Southwest said they are also working on adding more flights as desperate vacationers struggle to find a way home.

United Airlines added 14 additional flights on Sunday and is adding more flights Monday, according to a company spokesperson.

JetBlue, which canceled the most flights of any US airline on Saturday and delayed more than 600 flights on Sunday, told CNN it is working to rebook impacted customers on available flights and adding extra capacity with additional flights and larger aircraft.

“We remain focused on supporting those affected by Saturday’s forced closure of Caribbean airspace, which disrupted air travel across the region in multiple destinations,” the airline said in a statement.

Southwest Airlines says it has added extra roundtrip flights to Puerto Rico and Aruba this week.

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