Airlines gear up for departures

Rocky Mountain News

Published December 22, 2006 at midnight

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Denver International Airport expects to have four of six runways open by this evening, a spokesman said.

Two runways should be open by noon, a third by mid-afternoon and a fourth by early this evening, said DIA spokesman Daniel Melfi.

"There's hope for everybody that they're going to have a Merry Christmas," he said.

Frontier and United airlines opened their ticket counters at 4 a.m. in anticipation of noon departures — the first since the blizzard blew in Wednesday.

More than 2,000 flights had to be canceled because of the storm.

DIA operations said today that crews have been clearing drifts 4 to 5 feet high from the runways and taxiways. About 20 inches of snow fell around the airport.

Ticket counters for American, Continental, Jet Blue, Southwest and U.S. Airways opened at 8 a.m. and all others will be open by noon.

During the height of the storm Wednesday night, as many as 4,700 people were stranded at DIA.

Yesterday, RTD buses took several thousand people from the airport to downtown hotels. An airport spokesman this morning said there were 1,500 to 1,800 who remained at the terminal last night.

Before going to the airport, it would be wise to check your airline for more information on departures and availability of flights.

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