PHOENIX — Power has been restored at the Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix after an outage caused delays and cancellations Monday morning.
An 8:30 a.m. tweet, accompanied by a red alarm GIF, said the airport experienced a "power bump" that caused its systems to go offline.
"Our two busiest airlines, American Airlines and Southwest, are having significant flight impacts," airport officials said. "We recommend that passengers check flight status before coming to the airport."
More than 200 flights were delayed, more than 90 were canceled and over 15 inbound flights were diverted to other airports.
Christy and Andrew Schumaker was standing in American Airlines' line during the outage trying to figure out what would happen with their flight back to Philadelphia.
"Her mother is watching our kids and her flight is leaving tomorrow so this delay potentially interferes with her getting out," Andrew Schumaker said.
Several passengers either had their flights canceled and had to get their flight re-booked themselves.
"After two hours (we) found out that our flight was canceled. So we’re able to reschedule but unfortunately, it’s not until tomorrow morning," Jon Frackala said.
"We actually rescheduled by phone it was faster than waiting in the line," Robin Frackala said.
The outage was reportedly due to damaged electrical equipment that gave one worker non-life-threatening injuries, Arizona Public Service (APS) said.
Crews were preparing for additional holiday travel by conducting maintenance on an electrical switch panel that malfunctioned and hurt the worker.
The damaged equipment has been replaced and the employee has been released from the hospital.
Power was out briefly in Terminal 3 but Terminal 4, the airport's busiest terminal, experienced significant outages. Power was fully restored at Terminal 4 around 1:45 p.m.
A Sky Harbor official said the airport normally sees about 120,000 people moving through the terminals daily and Monday was especially busy.
The outage affected ticketing, jetways and baggage claim. Emergency generators were used to help some services.
Passenger Lily Tuscano flew in from Philadephia and said while her plane got in an hour early, it had to wait on the tarmac because of the outage.
“They said they were going to be stuck on the tarmac for a little while, probably close to two hours later we finally got in," Tuscano said.
Some Southwest and American flights are being cleared for arrival and departure. Airlines are still advising travelers to check their flights and to arrive at the airport early due to delays.
Anyone looking to check the status of their flight can see detailed flight times and delays on the airport's website here.
Southwest Airlines said it has diverted 15 inbound flights and has canceled more than 30 additional flights.
"We have issued a Travel Advisory to relax our fare rules for impacted Customers and will continue to monitor the situation as it unfolds," Southwest said. "We are doing our best to take care of our customers the best we can, and we appreciate their patience."
American Airlines said in a statement it had 14 flight cancellations, 46 delays and 5 diversions. The company said it would accommodate travelers whose plans are impacted by the outage once power has been restored.
The southwest branch of TSA tweeted for travelers to allow themselves plenty of time and be kind to airport workers during the power outage and delays.
APS released the following statement on the cause of the power outage:
"In preparation for the upcoming busy travel season, APS crews were onsite at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport performing scheduled maintenance. During the course of this work, a piece of electrical equipment failed causing a power outage at both terminals and injuring one of our crew members. The employee was transported to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries. The health and wellbeing of our crew is of the utmost importance to us, and we will continue to monitor the employee’s condition. Power was restored at Terminal 3, and we continue to work safely and quickly to restore Terminal 4. Outage restoration updates can be found on our online outage map at aps.com/outagemap."
The news of potential delays and cancellations comes not long after Southwest Airlines had to cancel hundreds of flights due to major disruptions in service.
The airline said in a Facebook post that due to air traffic control issues and disruptive weather that a large number of flights would be canceled across the U.S.
The cancellations marked the highest rate by far of other major U.S. airlines.
The cancellations aren't expected to stop anytime soon, according to travel experts.
Since airlines have been canceling thousands of flights as a result of multiple factors, including staffing shortages, it’s best to take precautions and plan for the worst, said Nancy Melton, a travel agent at Preferred Travel Services.
“It was very challenging to travel during the holidays [in the past], so when you add COVID to it, it’s just another component,” Melton explained.