Bay Area travelers prepare for holiday weekend of possible delays, cancelations at airports

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- Like millions of people across the country Marin County resident, Lisa Trusheim, is traveling this holiday weekend to see family.

Her initial flight to Denver was scheduled to leave SFO on Friday.

But on Thursday afternoon, she learned that flight had been canceled, forcing her to make other plans.

"So we scrambled and booked a flight today," Trusheim said.

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Trusheim is one of thousands of Americans who have been impacted by flight delays and cancelations across the country in recent weeks.

A trend that's expected to get worse over the Fourth of July weekend.

Not least of all, because of a pilot strike by Delta Airlines at seven major airports.

"The airlines just don't have enough staff. Whether that's pilots, flight attendants, curbside check-in people, TSA security folks. I mean everyone is short staffed," said Clint Henderson.

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Henderson works for travel site, The Points Guy.

He says the airline industry is currently facing challenges on a scale its simply never seen before.

"If anything goes wrong, like a thunderstorm, it's just a domino effect and it ends up being chaos," Henderson said.

Back at SFO, some passengers say they're worried about their own travel plans.

Some even receiving alerts like this one from airlines, warning them to arrive with plenty of time to spare.

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Sarah Villamor-Arana, says she came four hours early.

"I've been warned by my family that there had been delays this past week, and because of the holiday weekend I just wanted to make sure I was here," she said.

SFO says its cancelation rate sits around 1.4 percent for the month of June, far lower than the national average.

But depending on where you're flying to, experts say that might not always be the case.

"We just have to be really patient and I guess understanding right now," Henderson said.

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