Flights can’t handle the stranded

DENVER – Denver’s airport was operating at close to capacity Saturday after being snowed in for two days, but for many stranded travelers it was not expected to be enough to rescue their hopes of joining their families for Christmas.

Thousands of travelers whose flights were canceled by a blizzard that backed up air traffic nationwide were stuck on standby, trying to grab a rare empty seat on planes that were mostly booked.

The busiest carrier at Denver International, United Airlines, planned to operate a full schedule of 900 departures and arrivals Saturday for the first time since the storm blew in Wednesday, burying the city in 2 feet of snow, spokeswoman Robin Urbanski said. Flights were running “close to on schedule,” she said.

The airport, the nation’s fifth-busiest, had five runways open Saturday and expected to have all six runways cleared by today, but there was no telling when the backlog of passengers would be cleared.

The jam in Denver backed up flights around the country, and low visibility in Atlanta and wind in Philadelphia on Friday added to delays. About 9 million Americans planned to take to the air during the nine-day Christmas-to-New Year’s period, the AAA estimated.

By Saturday, New York businessman Todd Pavlo and his son, 16, had spent two nights on airport benches at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport. They waited and hoped through seven standby flights to Salt Lake City, where family waited.

“At this rate, I’m going to be here well into January,” said Pavlo, 47, who ended up booking two one-way tickets to Salt Lake – for $700 each – on a flight leaving today.