Ahead of storm, cancellations begin at DIA

Several airlines began to cancel flights in and out of Denver International Airport on Tuesday afternoon ahead of the major winter storm that’s taking hold in Colorado.

As of 6:30 p.m., 14% of Wednesday’s departures, or 119 flights, were already canceled on top of 70 canceled Tuesday, according to the flight-tracking site Flightaware. On the arrivals side, airlines had canceled 108 inbound flights Tuesday and another 84 Wednesday. Those figures were expected to grow as the storm intensified.

Southwest and Frontier airlines accounted for the bulk of cancellations, along with Skywest, which operates regional flights for some major carriers. United, DIA’S largest carrier, largely was maintaining its schedule for mainline flights so far, with just a handful of cancellations.

Some of the decisions to call off flights likely were made to avoid stranding aircraft in Denver during the storm. The National Weather Service forecasts 8 to 12 inches of snow — and possibly more — will fall across metro Denver from Tuesday night through Wednesday afternoon.

“Since delays and cancellation decisions are made by the airlines, some occasionally decide to preemptively cancel f lights due to weather,” DIA spokeswoman Stephanie Figueroa wrote in an email. “That’s probably what you are seeing. Most have given advance notice to their passengers.”

But if passengers get stranded at DIA overnight, she said, the airport is “ready to distribute blankets as needed.”

Already, as of early Tuesday evening, Southwest had canceled 138 flights into or out of DIA Wednesday, or 28% of its schedule. Frontier’s cancellations for the day stood at 28 flights, a similar share of its schedule

igueroa urged travelers to check their flight status regularly for the most accurate information. And she said DIA’S snow-plowing teams were preparing to keep runways and roads clear. Short flight delays were possible before takeoff as deicing operations kick into gear.

Denver Public Schools and many metro area school districts — including Aurora, Boulder Valley, Cherry Creek, Douglas County, Jeffco and Littleton — announced they would be closed Wednesday because of the winter storm.