As many as 100,000 travelers may not make it home in time for the holidays.
Nearly half a million travelers were scheduled to fly into or out of Denver International Airport on Wednesday, Thursday and today.
The midweek blizzard that closed DIA disrupted the travel plans of nearly 300,000 of them.
United Airlines has canceled more than 2,000 flights. Frontier Airlines canceled about 550 flights Wednesday and Thursday, with another 109 canceled this morning.
Even with DIA scheduled to open today, it will take days to reschedule displaced passengers on planes that were nearly sold out before the storm. Frontier flights leaving Saturday and Sunday, for example, were booked 90 percent full or more. Spokesman Joe Hodas said those planes will now fly at 100 percent capacity.
“It’s awful,” said Maday Carter, who lives in Lakewood and was scheduled for a flight departing Thursday morning. “I’m totally stranded.”
Unable to reach United by phone to rebook the flight, Carter called her travel agent, who found her a seat for Tuesday, the day after Christmas. Carter was planning to spend Christmas in Hoquiam, Wash., with her parents, ages 85 and 87.
“I just want to get away”
“I wanted to be with them for the holidays because, you know, they’re deteriorating,” she said.
Carter said she is also going through a messy divorce here, and “I just want to get away.”
DIA expected record numbers, with 158,042 travelers Wednesday, 162,779 Thursday and 162,682 today. Weekend traffic was expected to be nearly as strong, with 152,859 travelers Saturday and 125,279 Sunday.
Hodas was frank about the situation for holiday travelers whose flights were canceled.
“It’s not going to be possible to get everyone out on their flights before Christmas,” he said. “I’m real concerned about that.”
Many will decide they don’t need to travel, Hodas said.
United is “anticipating that it will take several days to get customers whose flights were canceled to their destination,” said spokeswoman Megan McCarthy.
Travel agent Chris Russo has helped rebook customers who couldn’t get through to airlines, but said there are “virtually no flights” with space available until Christmas Day or the day after.
Missed cruises, missed relatives
Some cried because they’re not going to see their relatives for Christmas, and others will miss cruises, said Russo, president of the Rocky Mountain chapter of the American Society of Travel Agents and owner of Travel Partners in Broomfield.
Passengers already scheduled to fly tonight, Saturday and Sunday will still be able to fly, according to Hodas.
“That’s the difficult thing here,” he said. “If you were unlucky and your flight got canceled for weather, you take a second position behind those that already have confirmed flights.”
When DIA closed for nearly two days in March 2003, Denver-based Frontier lost $4 million to $5 million. This time, DIA will have been closed longer and Frontier is a much bigger airline, Hodas said, so it will end up costing the company even more.
United, whose Denver operations are much larger than Frontier’s, could withstand greater impact.
The total price tag for all airlines could be $15 million to $20 million, estimated Evergreen-based aviation consultant Mike Boyd.
Getting hammered with calls
Many rebooking customers were not able to reach Frontier and United – both of which have large Denver hubs and depend on Denver traffic for a significant portion of their business.
“We understand wait times with reservations are long,” said United’s McCarthy. “We ask customers to be patient.”
“Our telecom infrastructure is not set up to handle getting hammered by 50,000 phone calls,” Hodas echoed.
Mark Polly and his wife, visiting Denver from Minneapolis, were scheduled to fly out Thursday. They now have a tentative reservation for a Christmas Day flight, but he expects they’ll miss a trip to Green Bay, Wis., to visit his in-laws.
“It’s disheartening,” Polly said. “You can’t really be mad at anyone,” he said, “(but) it’s hard – especially when you have to travel to see relatives. It’s difficult to miss that time you have with them.”
Reshuffling with reopening
Airlines will have a difficult time gearing up again when DIA reopens because their airplanes and crews around the country will need to be repositioned.
McCarthy said United’s planners are “looking at every option available,” such as whether any planes are available to add flights. She urged travelers not to leave for DIA without checking the airline’s website, united.com, to ensure their flights are operating.
Staff writer Kelly Yamanouchi can be reached at 303-954-1488 or kyamanouchi@denverpost.com.
