Power cut causes chaos at world’s busiest airport

Thousands of people were stranded yesterday in Atlanta as the world’s busiest airport recovered from a crippling power outage.

The outage occurred at Hartsfield-jackson Atlanta International Airport in the US where more than 1,000 flights were grounded just days before the start of the Christmas travel rush.

A sudden outage that Georgia Power said was caused by a fire in an underground electrical facility brought the airport to a standstill from about 1pm on Sunday.

All outgoing flights were halted. Arriving planes were held on the ground, while international flights were diverted.

Delta Air Lines, which has its biggest hub in Atlanta, was hardest hit. By Sunday evening, Delta had already cancelled nearly 900 flights and another 300 yesterday, nearly all of them in Atlanta.

Robert Mann, an aviation consultant and former American Airlines executive, said it would probably take until today before Delta’s operations in Atlanta return to normal. Mr Mann said “it could be most of the week” for passengers because there were not many open seats on other flights in the final week before Christmas.

One bit of good news, according to Mr Mann, was that Delta had more spare planes and available crews in Atlanta than anywhere else.

Other airlines also cancelled flights for the rest of Sunday. American Airlines cancelled 24 departures and an equal number of arrivals. The airline also diverted three planes that were headed to Atlanta when the outage struck, sending them instead to Dallas, Nashville and back to Philadelphia.

Hartsfield-jackson, which serves 104 million passengers a year, is the world’s busiest airport. It has held the distinction since 1998.