Holiday travel chaos looms as Delta cancels 300 more flights at Atlanta
Delta Air Lines says it canceled 300 flights scheduled for Monday as it struggles to deal with the impact of a major power outage at its Atlanta hub.
Thousands of passengers were stranded on arriving planes and at Atlanta-Hartsfield International Airport on Sunday after an underground fire cut power for several hours.
"Delta customers scheduled to traverse Atlanta Monday are encouraged to check their flight status as approximately 300 flights will be cancelled due to Sunday’s power outage at the Atlanta airport affecting all airlines there," a Delta statement said.
"Delta leaders having been working to support customers by coordinating with Atlanta airport officials and leaders at the City of Atlanta, and Georgia Power."
About 900 flights were grounded on Sunday while 48 flights already in the air were rerouted to other airports.
All customers booked on flights to or from Atlanta through tomorrow can make a one-time change free of charge, the airline tweeted early Monday.
Delta has also suspended travel for unaccompanied minors through Atlanta for Monday.
Southwest Airline, which cancelled 70 flights on Sunday, also issued a flight change fee waiver.
"To provide additional flexibility, customers who are scheduled to travel to/from/through ATL on Sunday or Monday, December 17 or 18, and want to alter their travel plans may rebook in the original class of service or travel standby without paying any additional charge," Southwest said in a statement.
Although power is back at the airport, the knock-on effect of the cancellations could cause disarray to Christmas travel plans for the next couple of days at least.
Hartsfield-Jackson is the world’s busiest airport and handles about 104 million passengers a year.
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Editor for TravelMole North America and Asia pacific regions. Ray is a highly experienced (15+ years) skilled journalist and editor predominantly in travel, hospitality and lifestyle working with a huge number of major market-leading brands. He has also cover in-depth news, interviews and features in general business, finance, tech and geopolitical issues for a select few major news outlets and publishers.
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