The spring storm that swept through metro Denver on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning tested Denver International Airport’s snow-fighting skills, the customer-service capabilities of DIA’s airlines and the patience of passengers.
Hundreds of flights were canceled and airline officials said it might take until today or Friday to clear out the backlog of passengers.
“We’re in the spring-break travel period, and our planes are very full,” said Frontier Airlines spokeswoman Lindsey Purves. “It will take a couple of days to get caught up and get everybody through the system.”
The storm caused Frontier to cancel about 40 inbound and outbound flights Wednesday morning, Purves said. The carrier, DIA’s second-largest after United Airlines, normally operates 160 departures a day from Denver.
United canceled about 215 arrivals and departures at DIA during the storm.
“From what I can see, we’re getting back to normal,” United spokeswoman Sarah Massier said late Wednesday afternoon.
Southwest Airlines, DIA’s third-largest carrier, had about 100 DIA arrivals and departures that were either canceled or diverted during the storm, said spokesman Chris Mainz.
Southwest hopes that by today or Friday at the latest, the airline will have accommodated all passengers who were affected by the storm, Mainz said.
DIA officials said as many as 5,000 stranded passengers slept at the airport Tuesday night.
After their United flight from Denver to Omaha was canceled Tuesday night, Wendy Goodale and Galina Ivanova spent the night sleeping on the floor in DIA’s terminal on mats provided by airport workers.
Goodale and Ivanova held onto their DIA-supplied mats and blankets as they camped out in the terminal all day Wednesday, waiting for their new booking, a 9:30 p.m. flight to Omaha.
During the storm, DIA put a snow plan into effect that aimed to keep the airport’s four north-south runways available for arrivals and departures, while alternately closing one runway at a time to plow and broom the surface.
Tuesday night, departures backed up as the storm made it difficult for planes to be de-iced and make it to runways quickly enough for take-off.
The backlog caused authorities to put a hold on arrivals, keeping Denver-bound flights on the ground in the originating cities.
After the storm departed and the skies brightened Wednesday afternoon, airport workers cleared DIA’s two east-west runways and put them back in operation.
Jeffrey Leib: 303-954-1645 or jleib@denverpost.com
