As of 6 p.m. Sunday, 619 flights had been delayed and seven had been canceled, according to . The delays were split nearly evenly, affecting 332 flights departing the Denver airport and 287 flights arriving, according to FlightAware.

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The Federal Aviation Administration issued a weather-based departure delay at DIA shortly after 2 p.m. Sunday, which was lifted by 3:30 p.m., . No traffic management programs were in place at 6 p.m. Sunday.

Southwest delayed 216 flights in and out of Denver on Sunday, followed by 202 from United, 104 from SkyWest, 46 from Frontier, 17 from American Airlines and 11 from Delta, according to FlightAware. Nine other airlines delayed between one and five flights, and United canceled all seven flights.

This is a developing story and may be updated.

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WestJet officials confirmed there was an issue involving a flight headed to Calgary, Alberta, Canada, in an emailed statement, but did not detail what happened on board.

The incident happened at around 12:30 p.m., airport spokesperson Ashley Forest said. No one was injured, and Forest referred all other questions to WestJet.

Flight 1571 was scheduled to depart Denver International Airport for Calgary at 12:15 p.m. Thursday, . The plane left the gate at 12:08 p.m., but never finished taxiing.

According to recordings of radio communication between air traffic controllers and the pilot shared on ATC.com, the airplane’s two left main gear tires blew out during takeoff. The tires were smoking, but there were no visible flames after the incident, controllers said on the recording.

The Denver Police Department declined to comment on the incident and referred questions to the airport and WestJet. The Denver Fire Department also referred questions to the airport.

Afternoon temperatures are expected to reach 96 degrees at Denver International Airport on Wednesday, four degrees shy of the city’s 100-degree record for June 17, . That record was set in 2021.

The city will reach 90 degrees as early as noon on Wednesday, hit peak heat around 4 p.m. and drop back below 90 degrees after 7 p.m., according to .

Further south, near Buckley Space Force Base, temperatures are expected to reach 99 degrees on Wednesday, .

As of Monday, other Wednesday forecasts from the weather service included:

• 96 degrees in , , and
• 97 degrees in , , , , , , , , , and
• 98 degrees in , , , , and
• 99 degrees in and

Denver’s hottest June day on record was June 25, 2012, when the city documented a 105-degree high, according to the weather service. Denver then tied that record on June 26, 2012, and on June 28, 2018.

“” temperature highs for Denver in mid-June range from 81 to 85 degrees, according to the agency.

Denver’s most recent 100-degree day was July 9, 2025, the only time temperatures hit triple digits at DIA last year, . City temperatures topped out at 99 degrees in both June and August, records show.

When is Denver going to hit 100 degrees?

The directors voted unanimously at an operations committee meeting on Wednesday night to task RTD service planners with identifying specific reductions in service hours, frequencies, and routes, and to present them later this month. The planners will propose combinations of cuts to achieve service reductions of 15%, 17.5%, and 20%.

A 20% service cut would save an estimated $62 million to help close the $215 million annual deficit and balance the agency’s $1.5 billion budget. It would mean eliminating 7,300 hours of bus and train service per month across RTD’s 2,345-square-mile service area, according to agency documents.

For months, the directors have been wrestling with the implications of service cuts, including the risk that they could accelerate the decline in RTD’s ridership, which has decreased by nearly 40% since 2019. Those supporting service reductions say that, if cuts must be made, they should target runs where buses and trains are mostly empty while preserving the public transit people use.

“There are no other options that sustainably get the budget back into balance. The reason why we should cut service when people are not using it is because that has the least impact on our customers,” RTD Director Chris Nicholson said.

If voters in 2028 approve a tax hike for public transit, then RTD service could be “dramatically expanded” again, Nicholson said. “What we’re doing is starting on a path to right-size RTD. These cuts would show voters where we’re headed if voters don’t take action in 2028.”

The funding that RTD receives, mostly from sales taxes, hasn’t been enough to cover rising costs for labor, fuel, maintenance, and programs such as free fares for youth.

In April, RTD managers recommended a service cut of at least 20%.  Since then, the agency’s 15 directors have looked for other ways to balance their budget, including fare hikes, grant funding, reduction of managerial and executive jobs, and debt restructuring. They’ve anguished about the impacts service cuts would have on metro Denver residents who rely on public transit.

But the numbers don’t add up, forcing consideration of other savings, possibly by cutting early morning, late night, and weekend bus runs.

The decision this week marked a shift by the board toward accepting the agency managers’ recommendation.

“We need to come to the hard reality,” said Director Julien Bouquet, who previously served as the board chairman and represents the south Denver suburbs, including Littleton.

If RTD does not balance the budget for 2027, the financial institutions that RTD relies on for funds needed for large projects, such as maintaining tracks and bus fleets, could downgrade the credit rating, RTD’s chief financial officer Kelly Mackey has told directors. Colorado law and RTD’s fiscal policy require .

Over the past three months, Director Karen Benker, who chairs the RTD’s finance committee, led the efforts to reduce transit spending without cutting service.

“Finance committee members are reluctant to cut service, but the operations committee members just voted for deep cuts. We are divided,” Benker said Thursday, urging public input before final decisions are made.

“If RTD goes down this path of chopping service, we will continue to decline in ridership and relevance, and we will lose the faith of the taxpayers.  Some on the board want to seek a tax increase in 2028 because of our deficit situation. If RTD slashes service, there will be no interest by the taxpayers to bail us out.  We are leaving our customers stranded–waiting for a bus that never comes.”

RTD chief executive and general manager Debra Johnson told directors she will instruct the agency planning staff to identify the service cuts required for each scenario and present that information at a board meeting later this month.

Meanwhile, directors are mulling whether they can afford to maintain their ban on ads that block bus and train windows and are highly unpopular among riders. They’re planning to launch a new, hourly bus service, funded by a state grant, linking Longmont with Denver International Airport. They plan to revive RTD’s BroncosRide bus service, which would deploy 92 buses on routes from 18 locations around metro Denver to the football stadium, at an additional cost of about $1.6 million. And RTD officials confirmed that they’re still hiring bus and train operators to fill vacancies, offering $4,000 bonuses.

Stanley JV, a joint business venture that grew from three friends in the neighborhood who wanted a place to hang out, has a buyer under contract.

The food and entertainment attraction, which is also a shopping market and office space, has proven to be a steady economic driver for the area in the past decade. It has also developed a loyal customer base along with a lineup of businesses that hasn’t wavered much, even through the pandemic.

Denver-based has talked to the owners over the past couple of years about Stanley Marketplace, said Chris Carroll, who runs Magnetic with fellow managing partner Daniel Huml.

“We really focus on assets that have a great story to them, with strong fundamentals, a strong place in the community,” Carroll said.

With Stanley’s 10th anniversary celebration coming up in August and plans to open a “mini Stanley Marketplace” at Denver International Airport in 2027, “we thought now is a great time to acquire the asset and really shepherd this into the next generation,” Carroll said.

The purchase price under discussion for the Stanley is roughly $41 million, according to Both Carroll and Jonathan Alpert, a partner with an owner of the marketplace, said the $41 million figure is “in the neighborhood.”

Other proposals mentioned in the memo, including a hotel and more apartment units, are conceptual, Alpert said. The contract isn’t closed yet.

Westfield formed Stanley JV with Flightline Ventures, started by the local residents working on the concept. Together, they started raising money to transform the 140,000-square-foot industrial building that housed Stanley Aviation for 53 years.

The manufacturing facility in far northwest Aurora was the city’s largest employer for a while. Bob Stanley started in 1948 after attending the California Institute of Technology and becoming a U.S. Navy aviator and test pilot. In 1954, Stanley moved the company to Aurora, just south of the former Stapleton International Airport, where he developed ejection seats and other equipment for the military.

He died in a plane crash in 1977. The aviation company was sold and later closed in 2007. Stanley Aviation’s original signs and logo remain.

After it reopened as Stanley Marketplace in 2016, the 20-acre site became a catalyst for an area that Aurora wanted to reinvigorate, said City Manager Jason Batchelor.

“Just south of the Stanley Marketplace, there used to be an old tow yard that was pretty dilapidated,” Batchelor said.

Apartments were built on the site. A nearby shopping center, Montview Plaza, was rebuilt into a mixed-use development that includes apartments.

“Folks want to be near the Stanley,” Batchelor said. “We’ve really seen it be catalytic for reinvestment and redevelopment of the surrounding areas.”

The Stanley Marketplace has been an asset not only for Aurora, but the metro area, Batchelor said. “I think Stanley was sort of at the forefront of the food hall movement in the metro region and I think they’ve set such a high bar. Folks are trying to bottle that lightning.”

The city of Aurora was a driver behind turning the marketplace into reality in the first place. Batchelor, who oversaw the budget and was the finance director, said city staffers pitched the old Stanley Aviation building as the home for a neighborhood gathering spot.

As mayor, the late Steve Hogan, along with other city officials, went to bat for the project when the property owners were set on selling to a manufacturer.

The city also used performance-based tax increment financing through its urban renewal authority, allowing the developers to use a portion of tax revenues to fill financing gaps. Through April, the city has repaid Stanley $7.45 million in eligible tax rebates out of the maximum $13 million in the agreement, which runs through 2040.

City officials said they’re reviewing a request to transfer the agreement to the buyer. “The city understands the sale is anticipated to close in August and is working with that deadline in mind,” spokesman Joe Rubino said in an email.

Stanley Marketplace wouldn’t have happened without the city’s support, said Mark Shaker, who with friends Lorin Ting and Megan Von Waldled the campaign for a neighborhood hangout. They lived in Central Park, formerly the Stapleton neighborhood, but couldn’t find a spot there.

After a tour with city officials of various sites, the abandoned Stanley Aviation building became their focus.

The three, none of whom had development experience, enlisted other friends, family and entrepreneurs. They worked with Denver restaurateur Kevin Taylor. After the Front Porch newspaper featured their efforts, the group, which formed Flightline Ventures, started hearing from people wanting to lease spaces. The group raised $2.6 million for the property in 2014.

“As we started talking to different banks, it became really clear to us that we needed a development partner,” Shaker said.

In 2015, Flightline teamed up with Westfield, a real estate and development company based in Denver. They became equal partners in Stanley JV, each contributing $5.2 million and taking on a $20 million loan.

One of the draws for Westfield was that Flightline did “an extraordinary job” of curating the tenancy, Alpert said. “The groups that had already signed up and wanted to be here was a cool, electric mix of local, really wonderful operators.”

More than half the current tenants are original lessees. Alpert said the marketplace is 98% occupied.

Westfield will keep the 168-unit Stanley House apartment complex it built on the site.

Magnetic Capital will meet soon with the people running the more than 50 local businesses at Stanley. Carroll said the firm will concentrate on maintaining Stanley’s role as a community hub and work with tenants on their individual goals.

The company plans to add gathering places after the realignment of , trails and landscaping are completed on the site. The project is part of ongoing work to increase the creek’s stormwater capacity and water quality.

“It’s the right time for another group to come in and reinvest, put that energy in and take this thing to the next level,” Alpert said.

‘Stanifesto,’ a manifesto

Karina Tittjung is one of the several tenants who learned in May of the pending sale of the Stanley Marketplace. She has been there almost from the time the doors opened in October 2016. She handled catering and special events for Rolling Smoke BBQ for seven years and then opened the pet boutique when a space became available.

“After working here for seven years, I knew there was nowhere else I wanted to open a business than Stanley,” Tittjung said.

While it was a scary leap from employee to business owner, Tittjung said she could count on help from a building of peers who’ve become family.

“This isn’t just a job,” Tittjung said. “This is our community This is our pack.”

Tittjung’s sentiments echo some of those on a poster on a wall inside a main entrance to the marketplace. A manifesto named “The Stanifesto”  was written to promote collaboration, putting “goodness into the world” and spending time with family and friends.

One of the line reads, “We believe there’s no point in making a profit if you’re not also making a difference.”

“We wanted a North Star that guides us and helps us make decisions when we have challenges in the future,” Shaker said.

The Stanifesto was attached to lease agreements. “Sometimes lawyers would be like, ‘What’s this Kumbaya nonsense?’ ” Shaker said.

The spirit of the message was important, Shaker added. He said the vision helped people cope with the time and expense of building a marketplace in a cavernous manufacturing facility, requiring extensive environmental cleanup.

Alpert said the spirit was evident during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic when employees and business owners showed up, making deliveries by electric skateboards and tuk-tuks.

Customers showed up, Shaker said. Counters at the doors in August 2020 recorded only 20% of the number of visitors that walked through the doors in August 2019.

“But we had about 60% of the sales,” Shaker said. “We only lost one business out of 55 during COVID.”

Stanley generally sees 1.3 million-1.4 million visitors per year, Alpert said.

Javier and Jennifer Perez, owners of , were the second tenants to move into the marketplace, but the first public-facing business. The first tenant was a preschool.

“We opened in December. It was winter. There was no heat in the building yet. Most of the walls weren’t up yet,” Javier Perez said.

Cheluna arranged to have food trucks in the parking lot. When it was too cold for the trucks to show up, the brewery worked with nearby restaurants to have food delivered. They used an industrial-size space heater to warm up the bar.

Perez and other business owners are waiting to talk to Magnetic Capital. He and his wife started their business after he retired as an emergency room doctor. He said Cheluna has many regulars.

“We’ve known people who tell us when they’re pregnant. We know the kid when they’re born. And then 10 years later, we’re talking to the kid about school. It’s been amazing,” Perez said.

Caroline Glover, a 2022 James Beard Award-winning chef, co-owns the restaurant Annette and Traveling Mercies, an oyster and cocktail bar in the Stanley Marketplace. She opened Annette, her first restaurant, nearly 10 years ago when Stanley was the only place that offered her a lease.

“I had been looking at other spots in Denver and nobody was really ready to take a risk on somebody that never had a restaurant before,” Glover said.

She didn’t want to be in a marketplace, but changed her mind after meeting the owners. The spot she looked at had access to the outside, so customers wouldn’t have to go through the rest of the building

And Glover said Shaker was excited to sign someone who didn’t have other places in Aurora or Denver. “I feel like when you get told ‘no’ a lot and then somebody gets excited for you, it gives you momentum.”

Working with other independent business owners striving hard to succeed has been motivating, Glover said. She hopes the new owners will continue the approach that has been effective through the past decade.

When the marketplace changes hands, Shaker will still be there. He owns the Stanley Beer Hall. Shaker said it’s natural to be a little uneasy with change pending, but he believes the new owners will continue “that same sort of community, local charm.”

“It’s the end of an era. A lot of blood sweat and tears went into doing a project  that most people thought was impossible,” Shaker said. “I’m proud of where it’s at, where it came from, and so I’m hopeful for the next chapter.”

Travelers also will be targets of an airport-wide digital advertising program run by a France-based contractor, , that presents a shifting mix of ads selling global brand products and items unique to Colorado.  Airport officials plan to revive their erratic $30 million Peña Boulevard bright-lights billboard — and widen it — under a proposed 10-year deal that would bring DIA $184 million.

The focus on places to shop and eat — shopping and food outlets will increase from 200 to 240 — is part of a strategic shift over the past five years to maximize non-aeronautical by getting travelers to spend more.

To that end, DIA designers have increased seating close to shops in the terminal and the three concourses.

Airport planners track the average amount travelers spend before boarding planes — $16.13 in 2025, up from $13.91 in 2022, according to a master plan. DIA leaders have set a target of $690 million in gross sales this year, up from the record $650 milion last year, $590 million in 2024, and $539 million in 2023.

“We are under-concessioned at the airport for the passenger numbers we are seeing right now,” DIA chief executive Phil Washington said, referring to airport projections that the annual 82.4 million travelers will increase to 100 million within a couple of years and hit 120 million by 2045.

The growth of beyond its original capacity of 50 million has thrown the balance of travelers to retail shops and food sellers “out of whack,” Denver Mayor Mike Johnston said. It means “the line for Chick-fil-A is three times as long,” Johnston said. “You walk by. ‘Gosh, I am hungry.’ But with another 15 minutes to wait in line, ‘I am not going to stop.’ The more of those concessions stops we have, the more people can feel they can grab a quick bite to eat on their way to the plane.”

White tent transformed

As the construction that has disrupted DIA since 2018 nears completion, airport leaders are preparing for the 2027 opening of the Great Hall, the centerpiece of DIA’s renovation, hailing its living room hangout and meeting hub features: couches for adults, and pads for children to play on, beneath a massive sculptural “cottonwood tree” lit with reflective crystals, 60 feet tall and 70 feet wide.

But the Great Hall will also hold about 10 new retail shops and food concessions, including stores selling “travel convenience” items, at least two casual dining restaurants with bars, a cafe, and multiple quick-service food concessions — a change for the main terminal.

Commercial operations in the Great Hall will cover 22,000 square feet, airport spokeswoman Courtney Law said. The added 31,000 square feet to the main terminal, airport documents show. DIA’s commercial expansion also includes an additional 15,000 square feet of new commercial space in the concourses.

The airport has a policy of reasonable pricing in the retail shops and food concessions, restricting markups to no more than 15% higher than prices of the items sold outside of the airport. Law said that the policy will be enforced.

For travelers moving past shops, DIA also has set up 40 “kiosks,” including pop-up shops and vending machines, where local small businesses sell products such as socks, soft underwear, and candy.

Dwell time

“We want people to dwell,” said Chris Herndon, DIA’s chief commercial officer and a former Denver City Council member.

“When you come up the escalator off the train, you feel kind of still rushed to get to your gate. We want to create the sense that passengers can just linger. We want to make people calmer, more at ease, so that they are more measured and relaxed,” Herndon said.

“If we’re able to do it, it means less charges for our airline partners, and Denver can be a more profitable destination. Being able to drive concessions revenues higher benefits the airport overall,” he said.

�ٱ���’s come from airlines’ landing fees, parking, and concessions. The money generated from the retail shopping and food concessions flows back to DIA to help support airport operations. Major airlines at DIA receive a share of concession revenue.

There should be limits, said Kristen Schatz, spokeswoman for the consumer advocacy organization in Colorado. “We should be more focused on the quality of our lives than on the quantity of stuff we produce and consume. Travelers shouldn’t feel pressured to buy anything they weren’t planning to buy or don’t need,” Schatz said.

“An airport shop can be great if you absolutely need a snack or a charging cable that you forgot at home, though you can expect those items will be considerably higher in price and perhaps not as high quality as those purchased elsewhere. Revenues at airports may be better spent on safety-related infrastructure than on building out more ways to lure travelers into spending their money and buying more stuff.”

“Revenues to keep everything viable”

said increased food concessions will meet travelers’ needs. “I would not want to go to an airport where my only choice is McDonald’s or Chick-fil-A.”

The airport’s new digital ads program will lead to “decluttering,” by separating ads from directional signs at the baggage carousels, where travelers have complained of distraction, and by reducing the overall number of signs, Flynn said.

“To maximize airport revenue by having more ads is good. We have an obligation to maximize revenue to keep everything viable.”

The misdemeanor case was dropped and the file sealed June 4, Wilhoite’s attorney, Harvey Steinberg, confirmed to The Denver Post on Monday. Meghan Patrick, special programs manager with the Denver District Attorney’s Office, said Wilhoite had been accepted into a diversion program. If he completes it, the file will remain sealed. If he fails to complete the program, though, the charges can be re-filed.

Wilhoite was originally charged with felony assault for allegedly punching the officer in the face in the dropoff lane at the airport in February 2024, telling the officer to “shut the (expletive) up” multiple times and driving away from the scene after the officer Tased him.

The felony assault charge against Wilhoite was downgraded to a misdemeanor in September and now it����ap been dropped altogether.

Wilhoite was fired by the Broncos in May 2025.

The civil suit, filed in February by the police officer, Jesus Galvan Chavez, recounts the encounter with Wilhoite at the airport and claims Chavez was verbally and physically intimidated and threatened, assaulted, “including trauma and damage to (his) jaw, hip and left lower and upper extremities.”

It also claims Chavez “suffered emotional, psychological, and physical injuries including bodily pain and discomfort” along with “losses and damages, including past and future medical expenses, past and future lost earnings, physical impairment, disfigurement, past and future pain and suffering” and emotional distress.

Wilhoite responded to the suit in April, acknowledging the two had an encounter at the airport and that he was eventually arrested but denying all of the substantial allegations made by Chavez in the civil suit.

The civil case is set to go to a jury trial in March. According to a late April court filing, lawyers for Chavez and Wilhoite have talked about a potential settlement and the parties agreed to conduct mediation before Dec. 22.

The ground delay is in effect until 8:59 p.m., The FAA had previously instituted a ground stop at the airport, before shifting to a delay around 5:30 p.m. The average delay is roughly 76 minutes.

Six flights have been canceled at DIA and 897 more have been delayed, . More than half of the delayed flights originated in Denver, and 426 more were bound for the city.

The disruptions come as the National Weather Service projected that the metro area, up to Fort Collins and east across the plains, could face severe thunderstorms and hail as large as 3.5 inches. The NWS had also warned that high winds and tornadoes were possible.

By early evening, most of the storm had moved into the eastern part of the state.

Hail roughly 1 inch in size fell in the metro area, said Greg Heavener, an NWS meteorologist. The hailstones grew in size as the storm moved east, he said, and were potentially as large as baseballs. He said NWS had not received any reports of significant damage from the storm or hail but were still monitoring it.

Update 4:35 p.m.: The emergency sirens that echoed around Denver late Monday afternoon were “sounded inadvertently,” according to the city’s Office of Emergency Management.

“There is no threat of destructive weather to Denver at this time,” the department said.

City spokesman Jon Ewing said the emergency management office would release a more detailed statement later Monday.

Update 4:04 p.m.: The National Weather Service issued another severe thunderstorm warning for Parker, Elizabeth and Franktown that is in effect until 4:45 p.m. Monday.

The storm could bring half-dollar-sized hail and winds of up to 60 mph, according to forecasters. A tornado is also possible.

Update 3:57 p.m.: National Weather Service forecasters issued severe thunderstorm warnings for Denver International Airport, Commerce City and Thornton that are in effect until 4:30 p.m. Monday.

The storm could bring half-dollar-sized hail and winds up to 60 mph, according to the . A tornado also is possible.

A separate in effect until 4:15 p.m. for Evergreen, Golden and Kittredge warns of quarter-sized hail and winds up to 60 mph.

Update 3:25 p.m.: National Weather Service forecasters for Castle Pines, Centennial, Denver, Lakewood, Parker and Thornton that are in effect until 4 p.m. Monday.

Quarter-sized hail and 60 mph winds will be possible, warnings.

Update 2:45 p.m.: A tornado watch has been issued for northeastern Colorado and parts of Kansas and Nebraska, according to the National Weather Service.

The warning area covers Colorado’s Interstate 25 corridor from the Wyoming border south to Colorado Springs, which includes the Denver area, as well as the Eastern Plains, according to the weather service.

Tornados, up to softball-sized hail and damaging wind gusts up to 75 mph will be possible until the watch expires at 9 p.m. Monday, forecasters said.

Original story: Large hail may be headed back to Denver on Monday afternoon, according to the National Weather Service.

and hail larger than 2 inches to hit the metro area and north to Fort Collins. The storms are expected to start at around 2 p.m. and intensify as they move into the Eastern Plains throughout the evening, said Abby Pettett, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Boulder. For the area east of downtown Denver and along the I-70 corridor, hail is forecast to surpass 3.5 inches in size.

The hail could do “immense damage,” Pettett said. said it had “high confidence” in its forecast and projected that hail could be as large as 4.5 inches further east.

“Right now, the main threat is that large to very large hail,” Pettett continued. “However, there is also potential for very strong winds and also tornadoes.”

To stay safe from falling hail, the weather service recommends staying indoors, closing any shades or blinds, and otherwise staying away from windows. Drivers should stay in their car and pull over if possible while keeping their back to the windows. Motorists should not pull over beneath underpasses.

The forecast comes a week after a hail storm swept through the Denver area, delaying hundreds of flights at Denver International Airport.