Dec 25, 2006 10:06 am US/Eastern
Flights Back To Full Schedule In Denver
DENVER (AP) ―
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Officials said they did not have a count of how many passengers remained at the airport on Christmas morning. (File)
CBS
After missing a flight two days earlier because she spent three hours in the airport's security checkpoint line, Leigh Bingham was thrilled to make it to the gate on Christmas Eve with plenty of time to spare.
"That was the longest line I've ever seen, including for roller coasters," she said, referring to Friday, when she couldn't get to Albuquerque, N.M., to see her family.
On Sunday, the snaking line was gone. Hundreds of packed flights left the airport carrying passengers who had been stranded when a blizzard shut down the runways last week, wrecking the itineraries of holiday travelers around the country who raced to get home.
Officials said they did not have a count of how many passengers remained at the airport on Christmas morning. They planned to distribute cots, but by early evening did not know if anyone stranded by the two-day snowstorm was still there.
"I can't imagine a lot of folks are still at the airport," airport spokesman Steve Snyder said, adding that the roads to the airport were open, allowing people to get to hotels. He noted that some travelers changed or canceled their plans.
The airport's two biggest carriers, United and Frontier airlines, said they flew a full schedule Saturday and Sunday, including a dozen extra flights by United.
Neither the airlines nor the airport had a passenger count. Last Christmas Eve, an estimated 129,000 passengers passed through the airport, the nation's fifth-busiest, but officials say patterns change from year to year.
United spokeswoman Robin Urbanski said the airline held some flights until every seat was filled and even used planes with extra seats.
She said many stranded passengers flying standby got seats but did not know the number.
Crews moved about 4.4 million cubic yards of snow from runways, taxiways, ramps, deicing areas and roadways, Snyder said.
More than 3,000 incoming flights alone were canceled or diverted while Denver International was shut down for 45 hours after the storm hit Wednesday.
Some passengers left for hotels or gave up and went home, but others stuck it out at the airport. An estimated 4,700 camped out there at the peak of the closure.
Runways started reopening at midday Friday, and the last of the six runways reopened Saturday. A snowstorm dropped a few flakes on Sunday but did not cause any problems.
The troubles at Denver backed up flights around the country heading into one of the busiest travel times of the year. About 9 million Americans planned to take to the air during the nine-day Christmas-to-New Year's period, according to AAA.
(© 2006 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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