Denver International Airport To Conduct After-Action Reviews With Largest Airlines Following Major Flight Disruptions and Delays
Dec. 28, 2022 – Over the next two weeks, Denver International Airport (DEN) will hold After-Action Reviews (AAR) with Frontier, Southwest and United airlines seeking to answer six key questions as it relates to the historic storm and its aftermath:
- What was supposed to happened?
- 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. Days later, passengers continue to experience difficulty getting to their destinations and recovering their baggage. As a result, DEN CEO Phillip A. Washington has requested each of DEN’s three major carriers participate, with DEN, in an AAR in order to document the findings to learn from the challenges and successes of the latest storm and its resulting impacts. Input from other airline partners and vendors is encouraged as well.
The AAR will enable the airlines and airport to capture details while they are still fresh. We envision all airlines and airports reviewing these learnings and establishing best practices for major winter storm incidents like we just experienced.
“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,” said DEN CEO Phillip A. Washington. “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. In the meantime, we have asked the Denver Police Department to increase security around the baggage claim area until passengers can be reunited with their bags, and we are continuing to provide blankets, diapers and other amenities for stranded passengers.”
