Hurricane Rita brought chaos and more uncertainty to the airline industry Thursday. Canceled flights and long lines at airports in Houston tied up travelers, while the risk of even higher jet fuel costs threatens the already troubled airline industry.
United Airlines and Frontier Airlines canceled flights in and out of Houston effective Thursday evening, including those to and from Denver.
Continental, which has a hub in Houston and flies to Denver, said in a statement that it would fly a reduced schedule Friday morning and halt flights through Houston from noon through Saturday. It expects to cancel 1,089 flights Friday and 828 on Saturday.
But before the flights stopped, those looking to get out of Houston loaded onto planes leaving the city. At Denver International Airport, evacuees from the Houston area were relieved to have escaped Hurricane Rita’s pending wrath.
“We are so glad to get out of there,” said Laurie Hornbuckly, 30. She lives 30 miles north of Houston with her husband, John, 38, who said the evacuation “was as orderly as you could expect.”
Others evacuees stopped in Denver en route to other parts of the country.
“It was the only place I could find an open seat to,” said Ernie Scalzo, a Philadelphia resident who cut short his business trip to Houston. “I was anxious to get out (of Houston).”
One evacuee, Jo Long, said the Continental check-in line stretched outside the terminal for more than a block.
“There were thousands in line,” said Long, a 61-year-old retired saleswoman who arrived in Denver on a United Airlines flight. She lives 32 miles west of Galveston, Texas, in Clear Lake, and worried that little will be left of her home when she returns.
“I left everything,” Long said.
Houston Aviation Department spokesman Roger Smith said the department won’t order the airports to close.
United tentatively planned to resume flights Saturday afternoon, and Frontier tentatively planned to resume flights Sunday.
But canceled flights may not be the biggest problems for the airlines. At Frontier, spokesman Joe Hodas said, “I think the real question for all airlines, us included, is how does it impact oil?
“If all those refineries become demolished, fuel is going to become a significant issue and it’s going to really squeeze us in the industry,” he said. “Just when you think it can’t get any worse, something happens and it goes worse.”
Evacuations caused staffing problems at the airports. Continental could be affected the most because of its Houston hub there.
Denver International Airport spokesman Steve Snyder said DIA could probably make space available for Continental to park planes flown in from Houston to protect them from the hurricane if needed.
Frontier flew a plane to Texas Thursday night that will transport Transportation Security Administration and Federal Emergency Management Agency officials to Austin, San Antonio and Dallas to prepare for evacuees.
Hurricane Rita can also be blamed for interrupting voicemail service for Cingular customers in Colorado.
The company’s computers in Houston were overwhelmed as hundreds of thousands of Texans fled the coastal areas and used their cell phones to leave messages.
The voicemail problems are affecting about a quarter of Cingular’s customers in Colorado and Utah, according to Cingular spokeswoman Anne Marshall.
“Callers may not be able to leave a message, while others may experience a delay in retrieving a message,” said Marshall. “It’s a congestion issue.”
Wire services and Denver Post staff writers Ross Wehner and Will Shanley contributed to this report.
Staff writer Kelly Yamanouchi can be reached at kyamanouchi@denverpost.com or 303-820-1488.
