London and Brazil Also Hampered By Weather And More
It took four days, but
Denver International Airport is finally operating at capacity, this
day before Christmas. More than 3,000 incoming flights alone were
canceled or diverted while Denver International was shut down for
45 hours after a two-day storm hit Wednesday and Thursday. The
airport is the nation's 5th busiest.
Crews moved about 4.4 million cubic yards of snow from runways,
taxiways, ramps, deicing areas and roadways, according to airport
spokesman Steve Snyder, while some 4,700 grounded passengers were
camped out at the airport at the peak of the closure.
Even with a few added flights, planes leaving Denver's airport
Christmas Eve teemed with passengers, including many of those who
had been stranded, according to the AP.
The airport's two biggest airlines, United and Frontier, said
they flew full schedules of a combined 1,200 flights Saturday, plus
12 extra by United. Expectations were for a similar schedule today,
as travelers around the country whose itineraries were ruined by
the ripple effect of the storm, rushed to get home for the
holidays.
Airline officials said they had no way of knowing when the
backlog of passengers might be cleared because they don't know what
decisions travelers made.
"Did they cancel? Did they find another form of transportation
to get to their destination? Did they book at another time?" Hodas
asked.
Runways started reopening at midday Friday, and the last of the
six runways reopened Saturday, offering more capacity than airlines
needed, airport spokesman Snyder said.
Denver's troubles backed up flights around the country heading
into one of the busiest travel times of the year. About nine
million Americans planned to take to the air during the nine-day
Christmas-to-New Year's period, according to AAA.
Similar Christmas cheer was found
"over the pond" and south of the equator, as both London and Brazil
airports suffered through flight cancellations.
In South America, flight cancellations and hours-long delays
caused by overbooking, equipment problems, and bad weather
continued upsetting holiday travelers across Brazil, according to
the AP. Tam Linhas Aereas SA, the country's number one carrier,
suffered the worst problems, with six of its aircraft unable to
take off Wednesday due to maintenance problems, causing a
"snowball" effect of canceled and delayed flights.
The Brazilian air force was called in Friday to help move
passengers with its fleet of eight passenger jets after the
problems started Tuesday.
At London's Heathrow Airport, freezing fog began to lift on
Saturday for the first time in five days; British Airways pledged
to operate 95 percent of its scheduled flights. Hundreds of flights
had been canceled since Tuesday, however, affecting tens of
thousands of people.
Some airlines, including BA, continued to operate many of their
long-haul flights during the fog, seriously reducing the visibility
of pilots and forcing longer gaps between takeoffs and
landings.
But with some flight cancellations still expected and a large
backlog of passengers whose reservations were canceled earlier in
the week, travelers at Europe's busiest airport still braced for
possible delays as they headed home for Christmas.
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