Some had been delayed for days.
"It was really, really bad. It was about 80-100 mph winds," said Paul Oettinger, who booked four flights out of Orlando hoping one of them wouldn't be canceled.
"I had a flight this morning, a flight this afternoon, another flight this afternoon, and a flight tomorrow, just in case," he said.
He says he's lucky his house in St. Cloud is still standing after Hurricane Milton. The deadly storm tore across Florida destroying everything from roads to people's homes.
"Everybody was buying everything. Every place we went, everything was sold out," said Ginny Zuck from Lancaster.
She had to hunker down as the storm disrupted her trip to see her daughter. She said they were spared from the worst of the hurricane, but were stuck in Florida for nearly a week.
''We were supposed to come home Thursday, then it was Saturday, and I kept looking and looking and finally there was one for today," she said.
While it's now offshore, the devastating storm is still impacting travel.
Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport will be closed until October 16 after the storm blew the roof off of one of its terminals.
There were 17 cancellations in and out of Philadelphia International Airport on Friday, most originating in Florida.
"I was supposed to be here Wednesday, but they closed the airport in Tampa Tuesday so I kind of had to sit tight and ride the storm out," said Duane Halsey who had to ride out both Helene and Milton at his home near Tampa while waiting on his trip to Philadelphia to visit his mother.
He said experiencing Milton was a white knuckle ride he feels lucky to have survived.
"When they said we've already gotten 10 inches of rain and they were expecting another six then it becomes, 'ok we're not on the coast, this isn't tidal surge, what kind of rain are we going to get?'"