Power Outage Halts Denver Airport Operations During Peak Travel Day

A severe power outage struck Denver International Airport on March 18, halting operations for nearly two hours during peak spring break travel. The incident began at approximately 9:20 a.m. following equipment failure at an Xcel Energy substation, causing the airport train system to lose power and triggering a ground stop that lasted until 11:30 a.m.

By late afternoon, FlightAware recorded 544 delayed flights and nine cancellations as airlines worked through the backlog of passengers stranded without intercom announcements or functional gate services. Xcel Energy officials attributed the outage to an equipment shutdown while crews were energizing a new transformer at the affected substation, though a full investigation remains underway.

Denver International Airport CEO Phil Washington confirmed plans to explore alternative energy solutions through private sector partnerships to improve redundancy for future reliability. United Airlines issued travel waiver code 7JCSW allowing fee-free changes for flights affected by the disruption through March 21.