3 Sunday SRQ Delta flights canceled; 2 more Monday due to ATL outage

The electricity in the world’s busiest airport went out early Sunday afternoon and, in a nightmarish scenario, by late evening it had still not come on in most areas of the terminal, leaving thousands of passengers at Hartsfield-Jackson Intertional Airport in Atlanta without flights, some stranded in pitch-black terminals.

The outage, which reportedly occurred because of a malfunction in a substation that serves the airport, has impacted Sarasota Bradenton International Airport with three Delta Air Lines flights from Sunday and two more for Monday all canceled.

Meanwhile, at Tampa International Airport, numerous Delta flight arrivals Sunday and departures on Monday were also canceled due to the power outage, according to the airport’s website.

Delta Air Lines is headquartered at the airport in Atlanta, and Delta reported that more than 450 flights had been canceled since Sunday afternoon. Georgia Power officials said they hoped to have electricity restored at the airport by midnight.

Delta Flights 1297, 1519 and 1600, all scheduled to arrive in Sarasota from Atlanta on Sunday, were canceled, Mike Schukrast, operations officer for SRQ, said Sunday night from the airfield.

Delta Flights 1533, scheduled to leave Sarasota for Atlanta at 6 a.m. Monday, and 1508, scheduled to depart Sarasota for Atlanta at 7:05 a.m. Monday, have also both been canceled, Schukrast added.

“The reason the Monday morning flights are canceled is that we won’t have the aircraft in Sarasota,” Schukrast said.

There is a noon Delta flight from Sarasota to Atlanta that was still showing on time as of Sunday night, Schukrast added.

An aviation expert interviewed on CNN said the resulting flight cancellations, which occurred just days before the Christmas travel rush, will cascade through the air travel system and last for days, putting a burden on other airlines besides Delta during the busiest time of the year.

Schukrast said it was possible the Sarasota passengers whose Delta flights were canceled Sunday would be put up in hotels in Atlanta on Sunday night.

“If anything happens of this nature, they usually put the passengers up,” Schukrast said. “If it were weather related, they are not obligated.”

The planes don’t land or take off from airports during power outages, obviously, because of safety concerns, Schukrast said.

“Aircrafts need ground power,” Schukrast said. “Computers can’t run. You can’t operate in the dark.”

This story was originally published December 17, 2017 at 8:57 PM with the headline "3 Sunday SRQ Delta flights canceled; 2 more Monday due to ATL outage."