A telecommunications breakdown in the federal flight-plan filing system this morning had “minimal impact” at Denver International Airport, officials said.
“There were scattered delays of 10 to 15 minutes,” said DIA spokesman Chuck Cannon. “If the outage had lasted into the 8, 9 o’clock busy times it could have been an issue.”
The outage began at about 3:15 a.m. MST and appears to be resolved, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
A spokesman for the National Air Traffic Controllers Union said at mid-morning that controllers were still entering flight plans manually into computers in some locations.
A malfunction occurred at the FAA’s computer centers in Salt Lake City and Atlanta. Carriers were forced to e-mail or fax trip plans to the FAA.
“The impact was pretty limited, eight to 10 flights had delays” said Lindsey Purves, spokeswoman for Frontier Airlines which has its hub in Denver. “We took some delays of up to 30 minutes and there has been some trickle down just because of the delays.
Southwest Airlines, DIA’s third-largest carrier, reported that four flights departing Denver were delayed by an average of 22 minutes.
Eighty Southwest flights out of 340 were delayed.
“It’s a manageable issue. We are now 90 percent on time through,” Southwest spokeswoman Christie Day said at 10 a.m. today.
Other airports, particularly those in the Northeast, appeared to be more heavily impacted.
Delta Air Lines Inc. reported “significant” delays and cancellations today. Flights for US Airways were delayed across its system. AirTran announced that customers affected by the outage may change travel plans without penalty.
Robert Polk of Polk Majestic Travel Group in Denver advised clients who are traveling to or through other parts of the country today that they may have extra at the airport and to check their flight status before heading to DIA.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
Ann Schrader: 303-954-1967 or aschrader@denverpost.com.
