DENVER — Equipment failure at an Xcel Energy substation is being blamed for a widespread power outage at Denver International Airport on Wednesday that stalled hundreds of flights and caused headaches for thousands of passengers.
An Xcel Energy spokesperson said crews were activating a new transformer at a substation serving DIA when equipment failed, cutting power to the facility for about an hour. The cause is still being investigated.
As a result, the outage triggered a ground stop—when arriving and departing flights are temporarily halted—for nearly two hours and impacted several critical airport systems, including the trains to the concourses.
A second substation continued supplying partial power throughout the outage.
► Watch Denver7's preliminary coverage of the power outage in the video player below:
Airline tracking website FlightAware showed that over 300 flights had been delayed by the time the ground stop was lifted, and about six had been canceled.
By 4 p.m., the power outage's impacts were still being felt by airlines, with over 500 delays and nine cancellations.
"Once Xcel Energy restored the airport’s power, teams worked to alleviate backups on train platforms and lines at security checkpoints," a DIA spokesperson said, adding airport operations were fully back to normal by around noon.
However, during the blackout, many airport passengers said they felt in the dark about what was happening, and several took to social media to ask questions and express concerns about the airport's lack of communication.
Flooded with questions about how to get to their flights on time, DIA officials suggested that impacted travelers reach out directly to their airlines.
One traveler, Daralene Jones, who was heading home to Florida, expressed her surprise: "I've never heard of anything like this before, and even a pilot told us through the speaker that we haven't heard anything like this."
After the chaos had subsided, Brian Dutzarn told Denver7 that was no excuse for the situation.
He added, "It just seems the way it's just laid out, it's a really inefficient process compared to — especially — to a lot of other airports in the country."
DIA is no stranger to train problems. Last June, scheduled maintenance caused major passenger backups and train delays.
The airport has been considering alternatives to the trains for years, including pedestrian bridges from Concourse A to Concourse B and from B to C, so that, in the event of problems with the trains, passengers could still reach their gates.
Denver7's Adria Iraheta contributed to this report.
Related coverage:
- Train track maintenance causes delays at Denver International Airport Tuesday night
- Mechanical issue stops trains at Denver International Airport
- Denver7 takes passengers' concerns to DIA officials after train delays Tuesday night
- Denver International Airport to shut down concourse trains overnight for six days in February
