Passengers wait in a dark terminal
at Hartsfield-Jackson International
Airport, Sunday, Dec. 17, 2017, in
Atlanta. A sudden power outage at
the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta
International Airport on Sunday
grounded scores of flights and
passengers during one of the busiest
travel times of the year. (Steve
Schaefer/Atlanta
Journal-Constitution via AP)
Holiday
travel
chaos
ahead
after
Atlanta
airport
outage By
JONATHAN
LANDRUM
Jr.
APNews.com
ATLANTA
(AP) —
While
power
has been
restored
to the
world’s
busiest
airport,
the
travel
woes
will
linger
for
days.
Thousands
of
people
were
stranded
Monday
morning
at
Hartsfield-Jackson
Atlanta
International
Airport,
where
more
than
1,000
flights
were
grounded
just
days
before
the
start of
the
Christmas
travel
rush.
A
sudden
power
outage
caused
by a
fire in
an
underground
electrical
facility
brought
the
airport
to a
standstill
Sunday
about 1
p.m.
All
outgoing
flights,
and
arriving
planes
were
held on
the
ground
at their
point of
departure.
International
flights
were
being
diverted,
officials
said.
Delta
Air
Lines,
with its
biggest
hub
operation
in
Atlanta,
will be
hardest
hit. By
Sunday
evening,
Delta
had
already
canceled
nearly
900
flights
and
another
300
Monday,
nearly
all of
them in
Atlanta,
according
to
tracking
service
FlightAware.com.
Robert
Mann, an
aviation
consultant
and
former
American
Airlines
executive,
said it
likely
will be
Tuesday
before
Delta’s
operations
in
Atlanta
return
to
normal,
and for
passengers
“it
could be
most of
the
week”
because
there
aren’t
many
open
seats on
other
flights
in the
last
week
before
Christmas.
One
bit of
good
news,
according
to Mann:
Delta
has more
spare
planes
and
available
crews in
Atlanta
than
anywhere
else,
which
will
help it
to
recover.
Georgia
Power
announced
early
Monday
that
power is
fully
restored
to
Hartsfield-Jackson
Atlanta
International,
the
world’s
busiest
airport.
More
than
1,000
flights
were
ground
on
Sunday,
stranding
many
passengers
in
planes
and dark
terminals.
(Dec.
18)
Also,
Delta
customers
flying
to or
from
Atlanta
can make
a
one-time
change
to
travel
plans
without
incurring
a $200
change
fee. The
airline
also
encouraged
travelers
not to
pick up
their
bags
Monday
because
of
anticipated
congestion
at the
airport.
Still,
when
flights
at
Atlanta
were
grounded
for most
of one
day last
spring,
it took
Delta
five
days —
and
about
4,000
canceled
flights
— before
it fully
recovered.
Like
Sunday’s
outage,
that
April
storm
hit
Delta’s
largest
hub at a
busy
travel
time
when
there
weren’t
many
empty
seats to
accommodate
customers
from
cancelled
flights.
At the
time,
CEO Ed
Bastian
vowed
Delta
would
make
“significant
improvements”
to its
system
for
scheduling
and
tracking
aircraft
crews to
recover
more
quickly
from
disruptions.
Other
airlines
also
canceled
flights
for the
rest of
Sunday.
American
Airlines
canceled
24
departures
and an
equal
number
of
arrivals,
said
spokesman
Ross
Feinstein.
The
airline
also
diverted
three
planes
that
were
headed
to
Atlanta
when the
outage
struck,
sending
them
instead
to
Dallas,
Nashville
and back
to
Philadelphia.
The
city of
Atlanta
provide
shuttle
service
to the
Georgia
Convention
Center
on
Sunday
for
travelers
in need
of a
place to
stay.
Delta
passenger
Emilia
Duca,
32, was
on her
way to
Wisconsin
from
Bogota,
Colombia,
when she
got
stuck in
Atlanta.
She said
police
made
passengers
who were
in the
baggage
claim
area
move to
a higher
floor.
She said
restaurants
and
shops
were
closed.
Vending
machines
weren’t
working.
“A
lot of
people
are
arriving,
and no
one is
going
out. No
one is
saying
anything
official.
We are
stuck
here,”
she
said.
“It’s a
nightmare.”
Adding
to the
nightmare
are what
some
passengers
said was
a lack
of
information
from
airport
officials
and help
from
first
responders
to get
the
disabled
and the
elderly
through
the
airport
without
the use
of
escalators
and
elevators.
“They
had
these
elderly
people,
handicapped
people
lined up
in
wheelchairs,”
said
stranded
passenger
Rutia
Curry.
“The
people
were
helpless,
they
can’t
get down
the
stairs.
It was
just a
nightmare.”
Passenger
James
Beatty
said
there
was no
real
method
for
evacuation.
“I
mean
there
was 40
or 50
people
per the
terminal
area
that
were
confined
to
wheelchairs
and some
that
couldn’t
get
through
the
airport
very
well,
some of
them
actually
couldn’t
walk and
there
was no
plan at
all to
get them
out of
here
without
any
power.”
Beatty
said
passengers
carried
those
who used
wheelchairs
down
stairs.
The
FAA said
it would
staff
the
airport
control
tower
throughout
the
night so
that it
can
handle
flights
once
they
resume.
The FAA
said the
tower
could
operate
normally
but
flights
were
affected
because
airport
equipment
in the
terminals
was not
working.
According
to a
Georgia
Power
statement,
the
utility
believes
a piece
of
equipment
in an
underground
electrical
facility
may have
failed,
causing
the
fire.
The fire
was next
to
equipment
for a
backup
system,
causing
that to
also
fail.
“No
personnel
or
passengers
were in
danger
at any
time,”
the
statement
said.
No
areas
outside
of the
airport
were
affected
by the
power
loss.
The
utility
said
there
are
“many
redundant
systems
in
place”
to
ensure
the
power
supply
to the
airport
and that
such
outages
at the
airport
“are
very
rare.”
That
wasn’t
enough
to
comfort
Jeff
Smith,
46, of
Pittsburgh,
who
ended up
stuck in
a plane
on the
tarmac
for
three
hours
after it
landed.
“This is
the
worst
experience
I’ve
ever had
at an
airport,”
he said.
Sara
Melillo,
who was
traveling
to
Pittsburgh
from
Kenya,
where
she
lives
with her
husband,
Greg
Presto,
to spend
Christmas
with his
family
were
stuck on
the
tarmac
for six
hours.
The
couple
had made
stops in
Nairobi
and
Amsterdam
and
landed
shortly
after
the
lights
went out
in
Atlanta.
She
said the
pilot
didn’t
have a
lot of
information
for the
travelers
but the
plane
had air
conditioning
and
attendants
offered
water
and
juice a
few
times.
She
described
the
Delta
terminal
as “big
chaos”
with not
enough
customer
service
for the
hundreds
of
people
trying
to find
a flight
to their
next
destination
and a
place to
sleep
for the
night.
With
her new
boarding
pass
handwritten
and her
bags
still
stuck on
a plane,
Melillo
was
hopeful
that she
and her
husband
would be
able to
get a
flight
in the
morning
to
Pittsburgh,
she said
as she
waited
for an
Uber to
take
them to
a hotel.
Airport
workers
were
distributing
bottled
water,
and
Dunkin’
Donuts
was
giving
out
doughnuts.
Officer
Lisa
Bender
of the
Atlanta
Police
Department
said
officers
were at
the
airport
to help
with
crowd
control
and
managing
traffic
around
the
airport.
At
Southwest
Airlines,
about 70
Atlanta
departures
out of
120
scheduled
for
Sunday
were
canceled,
an
airline
spokesman
said in
an
email.
United
Airlines
and
JetBlue
Airways
were
among
carriers
reporting
delays
or
cancellations.
American
Airlines
reported
only a
handful
of
diversions
and
cancellations
because
the
carrier
does not
use
Atlanta
as a
hub,
airline
spokeswoman
Alexis
Aran
Coello.
Hartsfield-Jackson,
which
serves
104
million
passengers
a year,
is the
world’s
busiest
airport,
a
distinction
it has
held
since
1998.
The
airport
serves
an
average
of
275,000
passengers
daily,
according
to its
website.
Nearly
2,500
planes
arrive
and
depart
each
day.