MACON, Ga. — In an airport, there are a couple dreaded words: 'delayed,' and even worse, 'canceled.'
At Middle Georgia Regional Airport, those words are usually very rare. That's why some passengers were surprised to find out their Contour Airlines flights to Baltimore were canceled the past couple days.
"On a maintenance delay. I will update you as I get more information. Thank you for your patience," boomed a voice over the loudspeaker at the airport Thursday afternoon.
Patience wore thin.
:It's going to be another 30 minutes. It's going to be another hour," said Amanda Mason. "Again we were told, 'Mechanical. You know, mechanical issues. You've got to wait.'"
Time ticked by.
"I've been here since a quarter-to-6 this morning," said Billy Wade of Milledgeville. "Still waiting on a flight, but hopefully it's going to happen. Look, I don't want to get on a plane that's not ready to fly."
That's what held up flights out of Macon for a day-and-a-half. Words we all dread before a flight: 'mechanical issues,' along with a weather delay.
"Haven't really heard anything. Like when I called to check on the status of today's flight, they really didn't have any good information. They just said you have to go to the airport and see," said Leann Deckert, of Washington, D.C.
Deckert flies Contour regularly. She says there's never been a problem like this.
"Always you know, pretty easy flight to catch. Reasonably priced and I really haven't had any issues," she said.
Airport Director Doug Faour says that's Contour's reputation. He says they hardly ever cancel.
"They have one of the highest completion rates in the industry, and their on time performance and completion rates are outstanding," Faour said.
He says they even brought in a new plane to get passengers to Baltimore quicker.
"Unfortunately, that aircraft had an issue," he said.
Some passengers say Contour didn't do enough.
"Any other airline would you know, reaccommodate you onto something, or even try to get you a transport to Atlanta and try to get us on other flights, but they apparently don't do that," said Tammy Britcher of York, PA.
Eventually though, there was a happy ending. The plane took off just after 5:30 Thursday, bound for Baltimore, to get these passengers back on track.
Contour did not respond to 13WMAZ's request for comment.