DENVER — On Friday, United Airlines' vice president of operations answered questions about the service reductions implemented by the Federal Aviation Administration and the impacts they were having at Denver International Airport.
Jonna McGrath told Denver7 airlines, including United, were required to implement a 4% service cut beginning Friday, which is expected to inch up to 10% by next Friday, if the government shutdown continues.
McGrath said the 4% reduction meant canceling 21 United Airlines flights out of DIA on Friday.
Hear from Jonna McGrath about how the company decided which flights to cut in our report below.
"We are looking at using a lot of logic and technology to figure out what markets are covering, both of those locations that are in those 40 airports, or are in an area where it will make an impact and still have a lower load factor," McGrath said.
McGrath explained how the airline chose what flights to cut using examples near Denver.
"For example, like Colorado Springs — we run 12 flights a day. We're running eight flights a day now. Those folks still have options out of Colorado Springs, or they could drive to Denver."
"Twenty-one flights today — it's not huge for us. That's like a minor snowstorm, medium snowstorm. We do around 50, 55, flights. When we go to 10%, it'll be like if we got hit by a medium snow storm here in Denver," McGrath said.
She also told Denver7 of the flights canceled, there were both commuter and main line traffic.
"We're also canceling some other markets that both airports are affected as being in the top 40, like a Seattle or a Sacramento, some of those markets. But we do have multiple flights to those locations, so there's still opportunities to get there," she said. "We are not canceling our hub-to-hub flying or international flying that keeps our aircraft going and our people moving through our system. So you won't see cancellations to Chicago or to Newark out of Denver. It'll be some different destinations."
Overall, DIA was relatively calm and quiet on Friday. McGrath attributed United Airlines' ability to keep things running smoothly to the fact the cancellations were preemptive, meaning those who had their flights canceled had already been rebooked and squared away.
"Most of our customers will be able to use the app self-rebook, or we will send a booking option to them that they can say, 'Yeah, I like that,' or 'I want to look for something else,'" she said.
United Airlines posted its list of weekend canceled flights, and McGrath told Denver7 she expected the airline to have an update on Monday's canceled flights by the end of the day Friday.
