A major air traffic snafu delayed most flights departing from Aspen/Pitkin County Airport on Saturday by an average of one hour and as many as five hours, frustrating passengers and causing hundreds, if not thousands, of missed connections and snarled travel plans.
Approximately 70 airplanes were en route to Aspen at any given hour that day, according to Jim Elwood, the airport’s aviation director.
Of the 31 scheduled commercial departures on Saturday, the airport’s busiest day of the week, the vast majority were delayed because of the unusually high number of private aircraft trying to land in Aspen for the traditionally busy St. Patrick’s Day holiday week. Two were canceled to rest the crews and to have the aircraft in place for Sunday, a trickle-down impact of the delays.
A total of 112 private planes landed that day, according to a Web site that tracks aviation traffic, while 29 commercial flights came in.
Elwood said the situation resulted from a perfect storm of circumstances.
First, the Federal Aviation Administration did not have its slot-control system — which is usually deployed on busy days — in place. That system limits the number of aircraft to between eight and 20 per hour at Sardy Field, and diverts or delays those beyond what the local tower can handle. Other Colorado mountain airports, especially Eagle-Vail, also had problems on Saturday because the regional slot-control system was not in place. When operating, the system gives preference to commercial flights, Elwood said.
Additionally, due to a storm on Friday, many passengers were delayed until Saturday, and many general aviation (private) aircraft chose not to fly in, exacerbating the demand on an already very busy — but clear and sunny — day.
A further, short delay was caused on Saturday evening by a small Cessna that ran off the runway while trying to land. No one was hurt.
“Saturday was a struggle for everyone, and I feel bad, especially for the commercial passengers,” said Elwood, noting that the snafu delayed everyone, including the private jet passengers. “I regret that it happened; we’ll do everything we can from an airport operations standpoint to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
Elwood added that he plans to have discussions with the FAA about the situation, but air traffic is the FAA’s responsibility and not under local control.
An FAA spokesman on Thursday denied responsibility, saying there weren’t any “FAA-controlled or FAA-induced delays.” A call to seek clarification when more information was obtained about the situation was not immediately returned.
The nationwide air traffic control system is “a concern for the (airline) industry as a whole. It’s antiquated and not equipped to handle the current capacity,” said Marissa Snow, a spokeswoman for SkyWest, which operates United and Delta flights through Aspen. Snow added that the system is most taxed at larger hubs.
A problem
“I have a problem with a plane that’s got eight people on it causing delays for planes with 100 people on (them),” said part-time Aspen resident Richard Simpson, whose daughter, and some friends, were booked on various outbound flights on Saturday that were delayed for hours.
Simpson’s daughter was finally rescheduled onto a connecting flight later that evening, but her friends had to spend the night in a Denver hotel. Simpson pointed out that the snafu caused reverberations on air traffic well beyond Aspen, as most travelers probably had to be rescheduled in Denver due to the volume of air traffic and length of delays
Simpson and others said various airport officials confirmed that Saturday’s delays were due to heavy general aviation traffic, which doesn’t sit well with him. One official was resigned to the fact that Aspen is more of a general aviation airport, he said, and added that it doesn’t matter how many people are on the airplane — they are all treated the same.
“It’s not just the weather anymore when you fly to Aspen,” said Simpson, who believes all private planes should have reservations. “Now you have to worry that you’re flying on a day when all the rich people are coming in their jets. It’s definitely not a one-time deal; it’s what can I plan on in the future.”
The airport’s Elwood could not recall another day this season when delays were so bad due to overwhelming air traffic, but he did say “it could happen to some extent from time to time. Although I would like to believe it will not be to the magnitude it (developed) on Saturday.”
Recalling an incident about 10 years ago, on Jan. 2, he added, “Everybody’s first priority is to do things in a safe manner, so you build in protections to try to be safe, and that has impacts.”
lutz@aspendailynews.com