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Tag: denver flight delays

  • Why landing at Denver International Airport can be extra turbulent

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    DENVER — Friday’s strong winds made for a bumpy start to the December holiday travel season at Denver International Airport.

    FlightAware reported more than 1,200 delays at DIA Friday—the most nationwide—along with more than 80 cancellations.

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    Daniel Katz flew in from South Florida, trying to get to Steamboat Springs for two weeks of skiing and holiday fun. But his connecting flight was delayed several hours, leaving him stranded at the airport.

    Katz also said the turbulence was pretty rough on his way into Denver.

    “The turbulence was crazy,” he said. “My mom was holding on to me and, like, freaking out. And I said, ‘Everything will be okay.’ I made a quick prayer, and we landed fine.”

    Aviation expert Steve Cowell knows strong downslope wind days like Friday aren’t fun for passengers or pilots.

    “You’re sitting there in the cockpit, you know, and things are rattling around, and it’s just, it’s just an uncomfortable situation,” he said.

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    Cowell likened air flow over the Rocky Mountains to water flowing over rocks in a stream, saying that unpredictable movement can lead to turbulence even on days without extreme winds.

    “We live in a place where, you know, sometimes it’s just not comfortable in departing and arriving,” he said. “That’s just the way it is, and that’s because of the terrain.”

    Several pilots reported moderate-to-severe or even severe turbulence Friday.

    The Federal Aviation Administration defines turbulence as ‘severe’ when it “causes large, abrupt changes in altitude and/or attitude. It usually causes large variations in indicated airspeed. Aircraft may be momentarily out of control.”

    Cowell says those reports can be subjective, but valuable to pilots when they take several reports into account.

    “Depending on those reports, that may determine whether they divert, that may determine whether they delay their flight, that may determine the speed that they’re going to descend,” he explained.

    Cowell added while that level of turbulence is still not enough to damage a plane, pilots try to take off and land into the wind when possible, and nasty crosswinds take away some runway options for take-off, leading to lots of delays.

    DIA expects more than 750,000 passengers to pass through security at the airport from through next weekend, with the busiest travel days projected to be Dec. 23, Dec. 27 and Dec. 28.

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  • Government reopening won’t immediately fix flight delays. Here’s what you need to know.

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    DENVER — Even with the end of the government shutdown in sight, transportation experts told Denver7 Wednesday air travel may continue to see some effects in the coming days.

    On Wednesday afternoon, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued an emergency order freezing flight reductions at its current level of 6%, citing “a rapid decline in controller callouts.”

    This occurred just hours before the U.S. House of Representatives approved a spending bill to reopen the government following the longest shutdown in U.S. history.

    MSU Denver aviation expert Chad Kendall told Denver7 travel impacts at Denver International Airport (DIA) during the shutdown could have been worse.

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    “We haven’t seen those impacts as far as delays at our airport, and that’s just kind of given the advantages of our airspace, too. We don’t compete with a lot of the airports, like a lot of the other airports do, as far as airspace,” explained Kendall.

    Kendall estimated airlines will need about 24 to 48 hours to get back to normal as soon as the FAA gets the green light to lift restrictions. 

    He said getting federal workers back to normal staffing levels could take a little extra time, though.

    “We were already in a staffing shortage of air traffic controllers before. The shutdown may have just exacerbated that just a little bit. So I expect within the weeks after the government reopens, that we still see pockets of delays at busy airports during peak times,” said Kendall.

    He said you should still be staying up-to-date with your airline if you’re traveling in the next week or so — just to make sure you’re not hit with any unexpected delays. 

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