McCarran expects few flights to be affected today

Jennifer Shubinski

Friday, Aug. 15, 2003 | 9:49 a.m.

Only a handful of flights were canceled or delayed going into or leaving McCarran International Airport on Thursday and this morning because of the blackout in the Northeast.

Airport officials said this morning that a few flights may continue to be affected throughout the day.

"I wouldn't be surprised if we continue to have delays and cancellations through the day as New York catches up," said Hilarie Grey, spokeswoman for the airport said.

More flights were affected to and from Las Vegas from cities affected by the blackout today, as power slowly came back up, than were affected Thursday.

Linda Healey, another airport spokeswoman, said Thursday night that as the blackout continued, it would have a ripple effect throughout the country.

Grey said McCarran is prepared in the event of a blackout in Las Vegas.

"We have a system of 24 backup generators and even in the event of a city-wide blackout, all lighting on the airfield would stay lit, elevators would continue to work as would the environmental controls (water and air conditioning)," she said. "We would lose a lot of lights, but the essential systems would stay up and running. We would not run at 100 percent, but we would remain operational."

There have been brownouts and "power bumps" in Las Vegas that have forced the airport to use some of its generators in the past, Grey said.

This morning, three America West Airlines flights from New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport to Las Vegas were canceled, McCarran said.

One flight to Cleveland was delayed this morning for an unknown reason, the airport said. One flight from Cleveland to Las Vegas was also was delayed for an unknown reason.

Flights from Detroit were also affected this morning.

One America West flight from Detroit to Las Vegas was canceled, while two others, one on ATA and one on Champion Air, were delayed for unknown reasons, the airport said.

Flights leaving Las Vegas to Detroit were less affected, with only two delays this morning.

Grey said airlines may have decided to cancel some flights because of the uncertainty of power supplies on the East Coast this morning.

Grey said people should check their flights before arriving at the airport and if a flight is canceled or delayed they should contact the airline directly.

Thursday night, of flights originating from New York, Toronto, Detroit and Cleveland, one flight was delayed arrival into Las Vegas, five flights were canceled and seven were on time, Grey said.

Flights leaving Las Vegas to the affected cities were also effected, with four delays and four cancellations, Grey said. Nine flights left on time for those affected areas, she said.

Most passengers took the Las Vegas delays and cancellations in stride.

"It's not like there were throngs of angry passengers," Healey said. "This is Las Vegas. People were more relaxed."

Nationwide, travel disruptions tied to the outage may persist into next week, costing airlines such as Northwest Airlines Corp. and AMR Corp.'s American Airlines tens of millions of dollars.

U.S. and Canadian airlines that canceled hundreds of flights aimed to bring schedules back to normal by late today as European airlines resumed flights to North America. Amtrak, the U.S. passenger railroad, reduced its Washington-Boston train service.