A sudden power outage at the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport — the world’s busiest airport — on Sunday grounded scores of flights and stranded thousands of passengers during one of the busiest travel times of the year.
Passengers were left in the dark when the lights suddenly went out in the early afternoon. Airport spokesperson Reese McCranie said all airport operations were affected, and outgoing flights were halted. Additionally, the Federal Aviation Administration implemented a “ground stop” for flights headed to the airport. That means flights heading to Atlanta were held on the ground at their departure airport.
Georgia Power spokesperson John Kraft said the utility was working to find out the cause and restore electricity. No areas outside of the airport were affected by the power loss.
Heidi Harrington, right, and her son Dillon wait to check in for their flight to New York in a dark terminal at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport on Sunday in Atlanta. (Steve Schaefer/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)
Delta Air Lines, which has its headquarters at the airport, said more than 450 mainline and regional flights were cancelled. The airline encouraged passengers to check on the status of flights via the Fly Delta mobile app or delta.com before heading to the airport.
At Southwest Airlines, about 70 Atlanta departures out of 120 scheduled for Sunday were cancelled, an airline spokesperson said in an email.
McCranie later said some emergency power was restored, but much of the huge facility was still without electricity.
‘This is terrible’
Delta passenger Emilia Duca, 32, was on her way to Wisconsin from Bogota, Colombia, when she got stuck in Atlanta. She said police made passengers who were in the baggage-claim area move to a higher floor. She said restaurants and shops were closed.
“A lot of people are arriving, and no one is going out. No one is saying anything official. We are stuck here,” she said. “It’s a nightmare.”
Mozell Smith, 68, of Atlanta arrived at the airport hours after the electricity went off. He was headed to Las Vegas with a sister and a friend.
“This is terrible. I wish someone would’ve given us a heads-up before we got to the airport,” he said. “I wish there would have been better communication.”
American Airlines reported only a handful of diversions and cancellations because the carrier does not use Atlanta as a hub, airline spokesperson Alexis Aran Coello.
Hartsfield-Jackson, which serves 104 million passengers a year, is the world’s busiest airport, according to trade group Airports Council International, a distinction it has held since 1998.
The airport serves an average of 275,000 passengers daily, according to its website. Nearly 2,500 planes arrive and depart each day.