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Weather and staffing challenges cause delays at San Luis Obispo County Regional Airport

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Rain, fog, and plenty of people flying for the holidays led to some challenges for the San Luis Obispo County Regional Airport and travelers this weekend.

"My daughter was supposed to land yesterday about ten in the evening and then I get a text alert from the airlines saying the flight was diverted to LAX," said Yndira, Santa Maria resident.

One flight was diverted Sunday night to Los Angeles after Airport Deputy Director Craig Piper says pilots couldn't land in San Luis Obispo due to low visibility from fog.

Others claim they missed their flight due to a lack of airline staffing.

One Instagram user said, "Got to the airport at 5 am for our 6:30 flight. We waited in line for 55 minutes and because they had one person checking all 90 passengers in, about 7 of us in line missed our flight."

The same traveler also said the pilots even had to assist with bags on the runway.

"The airlines are staffed to handle a certain amount of flights," Piper said.

Weather and backups from San Francisco and Los Angeles led to flights being stuck at the San Luis Obispo County Regional Airport, which made for an increase in passengers and not enough staff, according to Piper.

"It really put a load on the airline employees and impacted their abilities to process those flights at the same time," Piper said.

"There was no one manning the American Airlines counter so we were pretty much at the mercy of the workers who take out the luggage and they were the ones pretty much to give us an update," said Yndira.

Piper says things seemed to be smoother on Monday due to better weather and fewer delays for passengers heading to their destinations in time for Christmas.