THOUSANDS of Americans spent the Christmas weekend stranded at airports after computer glitches, freezing weather and staff shortages led to the cancellation of thousands of flights.

Passengers of Comair, a unit of Delta Air Lines, were especially hard hit after its systems crashed on Christmas Day, affecting flights to 119 cities. It resumed a “limited” flight schedule yesterday.

Cynthia Mayer, waiting to return home to Hilton Head, South Carolina, on a Comair flight from Cincinnati, lost both her flight and her luggage. She said that her earliest flight home would be late yesterday. “They offered me a toothbrush,” she said.

Comair’s computer woes affected 30,000 passengers, and flights were not expected to return to normal until later this week.

The financially troubled US Airways scrapped 29 flights yesterday after “an unusually high level of sick calls” from baggage handlers and flight attendants. Their problems started with severe weather that hit large sections of the country midweek and affected one of its main hubs particularly badly.

At Philadelphia International Airport, where a record number of 32,000 US Airways passengers had tried to take Christmas flights, miserable passengers milled around baggage halls strewn with luggage after handlers called in sick. US Airways had had to cancel 80 flights on Christmas Day and 176 flights on Christmas Eve.

Shirley Malave flew from Philadelphia to Florida on Christmas Day but after arriving in Tampa discovered that her luggage was not on the plane. She waited for another two flights to land in the vain hope of retrieving her belongings.

“They ruined everybody’s Christmas,” she said, after being offered $50 (£26) to help to see her through. “Good luck trying to find something open on Christmas Day,” she added. “I have no clothes. Nothing.”

“We’re not going to arrive, the ship’s going to leave without us and it’s going to be a great New Year,” said Morgan Greco as the reality sunk in that she would not arrive in Florida in time for her holiday cruise.

Thousands of US Airways passengers were separated from their luggage over the course of the week leading up to Christmas.

Planeloads of luggage were flown from Philadelphia to the airline’s main baggage processing centre in Charlotte, North Carolina, yesterday in an attempt to return the bags to their owners quickly.

The baggage backlog at Philadelphia extended to other airports on the East Coast.

Aviation unions insisted that they had not organised a “sickout” and the airline said it did not believe the chaos was planned.

The Department of Transportation is planning an investigation.

Still, there were suspicions that employees were getting their own back after US Airways approved a new contract with its reservations and gate agents last week that cut their pay by 13 per cent two days before Christmas.

The company is operating under Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which allows the management to remain in charge while negotiating with creditors.

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