Denver International Airport to conduct review of major airlines amid widescale cancelations and delays
As cancellations and delays at Denver International Airport impact countless thousands of travelers, the airport announced Wednesday it would undertake a review of all the major airlines that fly in and out of DIA.
DIA, in a statement Wednesday, said it will hold after-action reviews with Frontier, Southwest and United airlines to determine why the airport has been in disarray and how to prevent it in the future.
Those after-action reviews, according to DIA, will ask airline executives the following questions:
- What was supposed to happen?
- What actually happened?
- Why did it happen?
- What went well?
- What did not go well?
- What are we going to do next time?
"Last week's extreme temperatures, snow and other factors created large numbers of flight cancellations, disruptions and delays for holiday travelers," DIA said in its statement. "Days later, passengers continue to experience difficulty getting to their destinations and recovering their baggage."
Airport CEO Phillip Washington said he wants to learn from both failures and successes made by all parties involved.
"I believe it's critically important that we seize the opportunity to learn from every incident. I have conducted AARs on a regular basis throughout both my military and transportation career," Washington said. "Though airline accountability is imperative for this latest event, we want to determine why flight disruptions and delays happened and how we can improve the overall operations here at DEN going forward for the good of our flying passengers."
DIA officials have asked Denver police to increase security around the baggage claim area until passengers can be reunited with their bags and say they're providing blankets, diapers and other amenities to stranded passengers.
