“Events conspire to keep fliers trapped at airports“*

Thousands of air travellers suffered severe disruption to their plans in the last four months…All of these events happened in an economy where air travel has been commonplace for at least a few decades by now…and in a country with vast resources and advance technology. Read on…

Recent major disruptions at US airports:

•Denver, Dec. 20-24. A surprise blizzard closed Denver International Airport, stranding about 4,700 United and Frontier passengers at the airport, some through Christmas Day. Two United Express jets that diverted from Denver to Cheyenne, Wyo., on Dec. 20 took off the next day, leaving 110 passengers behind.

•Austin, Dec. 29. American Airlines diverted 85 jets bound for Dallas/Fort Worth airport because of thunderstorms there. One flight sat for more than nine hours on the taxiway at Austin.

•New York, Feb. 14. A seemingly ordinary winter storm triggered a meltdown of discounter JetBlue’s operation that lasted six days.

•Chicago, Feb. 24-25. A California-bound flight of United Airlines sat full with 181 passengers for more than seven hours at Chicago O’Hare amid an ice storm before the pilots canceled the flight.

•The East, March 4-present. US Airways passengers trying to check in for flights at airports, mostly in the East, are snagged by check-in delays. Lines have caused waits of three hours at some locations. The problem: A scheduled reservation computer switch-over failed to work as expected.

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* From USA Today, 14th Mar ’07