Denver airport operating at capacity as passengers scramble to get home for Christmas

Saturday, December 23rd 2006, 2:25 pm

By: News On 6

DENVER (AP) Even with a few added flights, planes leaving Denver's beleaguered airport Christmas Eve teemed with passengers, many of whom had been stranded when a two-day blizzard shut down the runways last week.

The airport's two biggest airlines, United and Frontier, said they finally flew full schedules of a combined 1,200 flights Saturday, plus 12 extra by United. They expected a similar schedule Sunday as travelers around the country whose itineraries were wrecked by the storm's ripple effect raced to get home.

``If we filled up every single seat, we probably got out 30,000 passengers (Saturday),'' Frontier spokesman Joe Hodas said.

Last Christmas Eve, an estimated 129,000 passengers passed through the airport, the nation's fifth-busiest annually, but officials say patterns change from year to year.

Airline officials said they had no way of knowing when the backlog of passengers might be cleared because they don't know what decisions the travelers made.

``Did they cancel? Did they find another form of transportation to get to their destination? Did they book at another time?'' Hodas said.

Hodas said 75 to 80 workers from Frontier's Denver headquarters went to the airport Saturday to help any way they could. Even chief executive Jeff Potter helped check in passengers at curbside, Hodas said.

Crews moved about 4.4 million cubic yards of snow from runways, taxiways, ramps, deicing areas and roadways, airport spokesman Steve 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.

Sharon Lewis Koho, 60, of Nampa, Idaho, was still at the airport Saturday, even though her flight to Boise was canceled Wednesday and she didn't expect to leave until Sunday. She made herself at home on a cot with a blanket and a stack of books.

``Welcome to my living room,'' she said. ``I have a bathroom, a drinking fountain,'' she said, motioning across the terminal. ``I've just settled in.''

Runways started reopening at midday Friday, and the last of the six runways reopened Saturday, giving the airport more capacity than airlines needed, Snyder said.

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.

By Saturday, New York businessman Todd Pavlo and his 16-year-old son had spent two nights on benches at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago. They waited through seven standby flights to Salt Lake City, where they were going to see family.

``At this rate, I'm going to be here well into January,'' said Pavlo, 47, who booked two one-way tickets to Salt Lake _ for $700 apiece _ on a flight leaving Sunday.

Overseas, fog had grounded flights for most of the week at London's Heathrow Airport, stalling tens of thousands of people at Europe's busiest airport. Heathrow officials said almost 95 percent of flights operated Saturday, after the fog finally lifted.

In South America, flight cancellations and hours-long delays caused by overbooking, equipment problems and bad weather continued haunting holiday travelers across Brazil. Even the Brazilian air force was called in Friday to help move passengers with its fleet of eight passenger jets after the problems started Tuesday.