The December snowstorms and closing of Denver International Airport still have travelers angry, and many of them live far from Denver.
More than 100 United Airlines passengers who were diverted to Cheyenne during the storms were particularly confused and upset when empty planes left without them. Many did not know what to do next.
Two United Express flights operated by Shuttle America diverted about 110 Denver-bound passengers to Cheyenne on Dec. 20, the first day of the blizzard that shut down DIA. With the airport still closed Dec. 21, the United planes left for Indianapolis and Kansas City without passengers.
United decided to bus the passengers to Denver, and they arrived Dec. 22.
“We couldn’t get the aircraft to Denver,” United spokeswoman Megan McCarthy said. “We didn’t want to take (passengers) back east when that wasn’t their destination.”
Ann Kinney, a passenger on one of the flights from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, says she didn’t hear about the bus that was arranged for the passengers.
“I’ve never been treated so inhumanely by an airline,” Kinney said. “I stood there openmouthed when I found out that the planes had taken off.
“I still get perturbed about it,” said Kinney, who is considering joining a potential class-action suit on the matter. “There was no communication. Nobody knew what was going on.”
McCarthy said United is “very sorry to our customers that they were not communicated to in a timely manner.”
A similar incident occurred Feb. 8, when a United Express flight and an American Connection flight were diverted to Scottsbluff, Neb.
The United Express plane was bound for Denver but was on an indefinite hold from landing at DIA because of fog. It left later that day for Madison, Wis., without its passengers. Travelers were bused to Denver about half an hour later, McCarthy said.
Diverting a plane is not unusual, but when a plane cannot get to its original destination, flying a plane without passengers is “uncommon, but it would not be an unusual decision for an airline to make,” said David Beckerman, director of consulting services at BACK Aviation Solutions.
“Some of the weather systems this past year have just been a bit stressful and with planes fuller than we’ve had in quite a while,” Beckerman said. “Unfortunately, communication is a significant problem in a number of stressful situations.”
Staff writer Kelly Yamanouchi can be reached at 303-954-1488 or kyamanouchi@denverpost.com.
