Airports and passengers were hit with the first phase of cancellations and delays on Friday as the Federal Aviation Administration started restricting flights to accommodate a shortage of air traffic controllers during the longest government shutdown in history.
Tampa International Airport is one of 40 major hubs affected. The 27th largest airport in the country has approximately 600 daily flight operations, including commercial and private.
Friday evening, TPA reported 19 cancellations and over 100 delays out of about 530 total flights.
A TPA spokesperson said the number of cancellations Friday "isn't highly unusual" and mirrors days when there is bad weather around the country.
Cancellations could rise as the FAA said it is phasing in traffic reductions. It started with 4% on Friday and will gradually increase to 10% by next week.
By 8 a.m. Saturday, the airport reported 22 cancellations and 85 delays out of over 470 total flights.
Some travelers in Tampa expressed their frustrations on Friday.
Jackie Jennings, a Tampa local originally from Michigan, was hoping to start celebrating her 53rd birthday with family in Detroit.
However, once she arrived at the Delta check-in desk Friday morning, she was told her flight was canceled and she had been re-booked for another one departing eight hours later at 6 p.m.
"I was going home, man, I was getting pizza. I had a plan. I had a Michigan plan. What a bummer," said Jennings.
Instead of leaving the airport, Jennings said she was going to stick it out and try to catch an earlier flight on stand-by.
"But I got to stand there and say, 'Can I have a seat? Can I have a seat?' like a goofball," Jennings said.
The cancellation caught Jennings by surprise. Scrolling through her inbox, she said she didn't realize Delta sent her an email Thursday night, telling her about the flight change.
"I didn't expect my one silly little thing I had going for me — going to Detroit — to be canceled," she said.
Across the lobby, Bridgette Gallman and her husband Leonard were figuring out how to get to Denver after their flight was canceled twice — first Thursday night, then Friday morning.
"So here we are stressing again, once again," Bridgett said.
"Sitting in the airport," Leonard sighed.
Leonard, a disabled U.S. Army veteran, searched for an alternate flight to no avail.
"We have not been able to successfully find one at a decent rate that we had before," Leonard said.
Bridgette said she was eager to get to Colorado, where she planned to stay with family. She was recently diagnosed with blood cancer and wanted to start looking for medical treatment there.
"I'm all over the place, I'm sad, I'm mad, I'm angry, I'm tired, I'm just a roller coaster right now," she said.
Leonard said he doesn't blame the air traffic controllers for the disruptions. They've worked without pay since the shutdown began on Oct. 1.
"Why would you go to work if you're not getting paid?" he said. "You can't pay your bills, people's lights are getting turned off. They cutting off food stamps, all of that. Blame Washington."
Other travelers, like Taylor Clemons, held onto hope. Clemons and her fiance were expecting to board a flight to Philadelphia to visit family for the weekend.
"I checked this morning, I was worried we'd be canceled," Clemons said.
After they arrived at the airport, she got notice of an hour-long delay.
Clemons said her airline, Frontier, did not mention if the delay was because of FAA restrictions, instead saying that it was accommodating another "late-arriving flight."
She hoped there would be no further delays, but in case she isn't able to return to Tampa after the weekend, she packed her work laptop.
