ALERT: Atlanta Airport – Power Restored (December 18, 2017)
December 18, 2017
Power has been restored at Hartsfield-Jackson Airport in Atlanta as of 11:55 p.m. last night.
According to CNBC:
Airlines had canceled 1,173 flights to or from the Atlanta airport as of 10:55 p.m., according to flight-tracking site FlightAware.
Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines said it canceled more than 900 mainline and regional flights due to the outage and diverted 48 flights to other airports. It also canceled 300 flights scheduled for Monday.
Southwest Airlines canceled the remainder of its flights to and from the Atlanta airport on Sunday.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection said some international flights were sent to other airports.
Power was restored to terminals and for “all essential” airport activities shortly before midnight said Georgia Power, the airport’s electricity provider. The company had said it “believed” the outage was caused by a fire that damaged an underground facility and affected substations serving the airport.
The Chicago Sun Times writes:
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 should help it to recover.
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.
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