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More than 450 flights were delayed at Denver International Airport on Sunday after a mechanical failure occurred in the airport's baggage handling system.
According to FlightAware.com, another 60 flights were canceled.
As of 6 p.m. Sunday, a total of 481 flights to and from Denver were delayed. Of the disruptions, 225 delays affected Southwest Airlines flights and another 115 delays affected United Airlines flights, FlightAware.com reported. Southwest canceled one flight while United canceled 56. Alaska Airlines also canceled two flights. On Sunday, United and Alaska grounded all of their Boeing 737 Max 9 planes after the fuselage of a plane exploded three miles over Oregon on Friday evening.
The Denver airport's baggage system experienced a mechanical problem Sunday morning, but it was resolved in the afternoon, said Ashley Forest, an airport spokeswoman. However, the airport was still working through the backlog and getting luggage to the right locations as of Sunday afternoon, she said.
Forest said she did not know whether the baggage system malfunction caused the flight delays and referred questions to individual airlines.
The passengers' delays on the Southwest flight were due to the failure of the baggage system, said Alyssa Foster, a spokeswoman for the company.
“Southwest Airlines employees are working to move the bags through the system and onto their respective aircraft. However, this is causing delays to our departures to Denver,” Foster wrote in an emailed statement from the company’s media department. “We apologize to customers for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience as we work to get you to your destination as quickly as possible.”
In September 2022, the Denver City Council approved a $500 million contract to modernize the airport's baggage system.
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For more information, see the Denver Post