Airport continues to fight AC problems
Bush uses temporary fixes to smooth wait for full repairs
George Bush Intercontinental Airport officials said Tuesday they are still dealing with air conditioning problems, but some quick fixes were expected to keep the facility in a normal temperature range as the city plunged deeper into an intense and muggy heat wave.
“Our maintenance team has partially restored the functionality of the Central Utility Plant, and with the temporary chillers added to the system, the A/C system should now have the necessary capacity to keep the airport cool and in a normal temperature range during the day,” the airport said Tuesday on Twitter.
Monday afternoon, officials said Bush airport’s air conditioning system had experienced unexpected problems, reducing the cooling capacity of the system and causing a rise in the temperature inside the airport.
To provide relief to travelers as crews evaluated to problems and made repairs, airport staff distributed free water bottles Monday and placed large circular fans in at least one of the terminals by Tuesday morning.
The airport’s maintenance division partially restored the functionality of the Central Utility Plant at Bush on
Monday night by bringing one chiller back online, said Melissa Correa, a communications senior staff analyst for Houston Airports.
While maintenance works to restore another chiller that is still offline, Correa said the airport will keep relying on temporary chillers.
“We continue to use three temporary chillers — which increase capacity of the chilled water needed to cool our airports,” Correa said in an email
Tuesday. “Our team is working to bring a fourth temporary chiller online, sometime today, to further increase capacity.”
The normal temperature range for the terminals is 74 degrees, plus or minus two degrees, Correa said.
“As of a 9 a.m. today, all terminals are within that range, though we understand that the temperature could change throughout the day,” Correa
“I came in the airport, and I was expecting it to be pretty cold because normally when I come to Texas, because I’m from here, it’s like pretty chilly inside. … It’s not this time, so it was a noticeable difference.”
Heather Harding, passenger traveling from Denver
said. “For context, yesterday’s average temperature in all five terminals was between 75-77 degrees.”
After flying from Denver to Houston, Heather Harding said she didn’t know the airport’s air conditioning was malfunctioning until feeling it for herself.
“I came in the airport, and I was expecting it to be pretty cold because normally when I come to Texas, because I’m from here, it’s like pretty chilly inside,” Harding said Tuesday morning. “It’s not this time, so it was a noticeable difference.”
Harding said she didn’t notice any efforts to keep passengers cool, such as fans or water bottle distribution, as she made her way through the terminal.
“They really need to fix it because it’s Houston, Texas, and people are expecting air conditioning when they fly in,” Harding said.
Flying back home from a work trip in Miami, passenger Chris Binford said the airport didn’t feel exceptionally hot when he landed around 8:30 a.m.
“It felt a little stuffy up in the terminal, but it wasn’t anything that seemed too far out of the norm,” Binford said.
April Ellington, who’s in town visiting family, said she got an email on the plane mentioning the airport’s air conditioning was having difficulties. Ellington said she didn’t detect an uncomfortable temperature level walking from her gate to baggage claim.
“They’re probably doing the best that they can to get the air back on, but I’m sure it will get warmer as the day goes on,” Ellington said. “It’s supposed to be pretty hot today.”
According to Correa, Bush Airport offers 567 daily flights during the summer months, welcoming in around 134,000 passengers to the airport a day.
The temperature in Houston was forecast to hit a high of 94 degrees Tuesday, with a heat index as high as 107 degrees, according to the National Weather Service.