For weeks, travelers have faced unusually long delays, blamed on the demand for air travel reaching its highest levels since the early days of the pandemic.

On Sunday, a group of Lehighton students and teachers returning from Europe found themselves at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport among the thousands of passengers who have been left stranded by the delays.

“I saw a lot of people frustrated and animated,” said Mike Feifel, a teacher who chaperoned the group on their trip to Italy. “I could have shot a video, and it would have gone viral.”

The Lehighton travelers just finished spending more than a week exploring Florence, Rome and Venice with other high school groups from around the country. The trip itself was an unbelievable time, Feifel said.

They planned to return to Philadelphia from Rome on Sunday afternoon via Toronto. A delay on the first flight caused their airline, Air Canada, to rebook their flight home. After a long trip through Canadian customs, they still reached the gate in time for their second flight.

But they learned they had been rebooked, because the airline didn’t believe the group would be able to make its connection.

“Their explanation was that they were trying to help us out,” Feifel said.

The rescheduled flight was for Monday afternoon, but the airport wouldn’t let the travelers stay the night. Finding five hotel rooms at 9 p.m. wasn’t easy, or cheap, especially with the large number of displaced travelers.

Other delayed passengers were being forced to fly through 3-4 cities to reach their destinations.

Flight delays have been numerous this summer as more people are flying than at any point during the pandemic. The weekend of June 18-19, 3,000 flights were canceled and more than 19,000 were delayed. Airlines have blamed the Federal Aviation Administration for a shortage of air traffic controllers. The FAA has blamed airlines for encouraging employees to take buyouts during the pandemic. Canadian transportation officials have also acknowledged their own staffing shortages.

The constant rescheduling of flights has also led to an increase in missing luggage. The floors of the baggage claims at Pearson International were filled with unclaimed luggage from travelers, including a few belonging to the Lehighton travelers.

“As I was making hotel arrangements, we were going through that sea of suitcases trying to see if any of them were ours,” Feifel said.

On Monday, flights were delayed again. The group finally boarded - 90 minutes after their scheduled departure and 24 hours after their original flight.

Feifel said despite the delays and frustrations, and some airsickness, the students were dancing and laughing as they waited for their delayed flight. When they arrived in Philadelphia, everyone’s luggage had made the trip.

Feifel said the students’ ability to pull together and overcome the challenge was exactly what he’d expect from Lehighton students.

“To me that was very gratifying - almost as much as the trip was,” he said.