The past two weeks have been a challenge for airports and travelers in the United States, primarily because of severe weather. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ordered ground stops at seven of American Airlines’ major hubs, forcing the carrier to face the world’s highest number of cancellations two weekends ago. Southwest Airlines also endured the same but for delays over three days from June 19 to 21.
Days later, Storm Arthur brought air travel to a halt in multiple Central and Eastern states. Although the storm’s remnants passed, it seems the air travel unrest isn’t fully over for some states as of Wednesday, June 24. Once again, bad weather has grounded all departing flights, this time at a major United Airlines hub that sees the carrier’s highest volume of passengers.
FAA Halts Flights At United Airlines’ Largest Passenger Hub
United Airlines’ largest hub in terms of passenger volume and daily domestic network traffic is Denver International Airport (DEN) which, on Wednesday, June 24, is facing severe weather disruption.
A tornado watch is in effect for a large portion of the Denver area and into the northeast, and is expected to remain in place until 11 PM local time on Wednesday. A severe thunderstorm watch is also in effect through 10 PM. Because of the severe weather potential, the FAA issued a ground stop at DEN, forcing all departures to a halt in the late afternoon. The ground stop switched to a ground delay after 4:45 PM.
“Departures to Denver International are delayed [average] 70 mins due to thunderstorms. All Contiguous US DEP flights included,” the FAA wrote on June 24.
As of 5 PM local time, just under a quarter of DEN’s departures are delayed, although only 1% are canceled, according to flight-tracking website, FlightAware.
|
Flight Status |
Affected Flights |
|
Delayed |
275 (24%) |
|
Canceled |
18 (1%) |
CBS News reported that the potential severe weather in Colorado was projected to be lower after 7 PM.
A tornado warning was also in effect for Logan County, Morgan County, and Washington County in Colorado until 5 PM local time on Wednesday.
Flight disruption figures for DEN may change into the evening as the weather-induced FAA ground stop and delay are likely to create a domino effect. Furthermore, travelers should be warned that severe weather is possible again in the Denver area on Thursday and Friday, which may impact flights at DEN.
DEN Is United Airlines’ Biggest Passenger Volume Hub
At the time of writing, United Airlines faced 480 delays across its network in total, but only eight cancellations, some of which resulted from DEN’s FAA ground stop and subsequent ground delay. All things considered, those disruption numbers are relatively low, especially since DEN serves the majority of United’s passengers.
Indeed, when it comes to the sheer number of passengers, DEN is United’s biggest hub; since launching its first flight from Denver 89 years ago, it has grown its presence significantly to become the largest airline operating flights to and from DEN.
14.4 million passengers fly with the carrier at DEN annually, according to Simple Flying. Chicago-O’Hare International Airport (ORD) closely follows DEN as United’s second-largest hub for passenger volume at 12.5 million, with Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) in New Jersey, in third place at 6.9 million, George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) in Houston, Texas, at 9.4 million in fourth, and San Francisco International Airport, California, in fifth at 7.8 million.
United Airlines, together with United Express, now operates over 450 daily departures from DEN, serving more than 150 nonstop destinations. This total represents nearly 1,000 combined flight arrivals and departures per day. That makes DEN the largest operating hub for United.
However, naturally, that means any disruption at a major hub like this one typically hits the carrier hard. Although, United isn’t alone with weather-related cancellations and delays in the past couple of weeks at primary hubs. The major U.S. airlines are in it together; both American Airlines and Delta Air Lines issued alerts for dozens of U.S. hubs for the coming days, which the FAA added to on Monday with a fresh travel alert for 18 major airports across the country, reminding travelers that the recent weather chaos is here to stay this week.
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