DENVER — It's not the airport that decides whether or not to cancel a flight — it's the airline.
9NEWS spoke with several airlines and Denver International Airport (DIA) as a winter storm comes to Colorado, bringing blizzard conditions and dangerous roads with it.
For the April blizzard, hundreds of flights were canceled before the snow even began to fall.
DIA staffers do not decide to cancel or postpone flights, according to airport spokesperson Emily Williams.
But, if the airport begins closing down runways because they can't keep them clear or due to visibility issues, then some flights may be subsequently canceled.
For the vast majority of cases, however, it is the airline itself that decides to cancel or delay a plane ride.
Here's how different airlines at DIA make their decision whether or not to close:
A spokesperson with Southwest sent 9NEWS a lengthy explanation as to how they decide, but suffice to say thousands of employees are involved in the decision each day.
"The general guidance of irregular operations caused by weather is to keep as many people moving as possible," the statement reads.
More can be found below:
"On a day such as this one that Denver faces, that means our team of meteorologists have been working with our planners to look at timing of impacts (visibility, high winds that would cause an airfield to ‘slow’ operations, spacing out planes, on-the-airport conditions, deicing infrastructure, how our customers and employees would get to and from the airport…and the list goes on and on and on.)
Other teams are looking at how many customers are booked on which flights to which cities so that, when operational adjustments are made (either with proactive cancels or proactive delays), we’re able to ensure that people can move onto other flights where possible."
As Wednesday's blizzard is concerned:
"In the case of Denver today, our operation is largely suspended beginning mid-afternoon until our latest scheduled arriving flights, with a few exceptions. So our general guidance to customers is always to check Southwest.com for updates to their specific itineraries.
The hundred-or-so cancellations this afternoon represent a large portion of our schedule at Denver International today and so that work began yesterday to cancel, notify, and re-accommodate (again, the goal is to keep as many people moving as possible) by limiting the amount of aircraft on the ground during the weather, to ensure that no aircraft or crew get 'stuck,' so that people are not driving toward flights that won’t operate, so that others aren’t standing in line, so that gates remain functional and not full (of both people and planes)."
American Airlines is not a "big" player at DIA - in a statement to 9NEWS, a spokesperson said only 25 flights were scheduled to depart on Wednesday.
Here's the full statement from AA:
"We don’t operate many flights to/from Denver — for example, we only have 25 scheduled departures today.
"Our team of meteorologists look at the forecast, have calls with the FAA and our local team also is speaking with the airport itself. We then decide how many aircraft the airport can handle in terms of arrivals/departures, taking into account deicing."
United is one of the larger airlines at DIA - in January, over 45% of all travelers there went through the airline.
This statement was provided by United's corporate communications:
"We closely monitor the weather and have proactively canceled flights ahead of the predicted severe weather. We also have a travel waiver in place and encourage customers to check their flights status before heading to the airport."
We've also reached out to Frontier Airlines for guidance as well. This post will be updated when we hear back.
The airport does not actually delay or cancel any flights itself. However, they did offer some helpful information to anyone interested.
They do offer guidance to airlines who ask — as you can see from both American Airlines and Southwest — like telling them about conditions and getting them whatever information they need.
It's up to the airport and the Denver Police Department as to whether or not to close Peña Boulevard. If you recall, Peña was shut down during the March 13 blizzard, but that was only because the road itself was impassable — there were well over a dozen cars sliding off the roads and rescue/retrieval operations took a long time. Neither the airport nor DPD thought to close the road before that happened.
The airport will also never close a terminal during a snowstorm; it may be forced to close its airfield to all inbound and outbound flights, however.
Only four times since DIA opened in 1995 has that happened, the most recent time being March 13.
SUGGESTED VIDEOS | Local stories from 9NEWS