Comair cancels all flights after computer system crash

<p>Comair canceled all of its 1,100 flights on Saturday after a computer system managing flight assignments crashed, a spokesman said.</p><p>Nick Miller, a spokesman for the Delta subsidiary based at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, said the cancellations affected 30,000 travelers in 118 cities.</p><p>Ohio was just beginning to recover from a paralyzing winter storm that socked the state Wednesday and Thursday, causing flights to be delayed or canceled in Columbus, Cleveland, Dayton and Cincinnati. Other airports were operating smoothly on Saturday, officials said.</p><p>Comair canceled most flights Thursday after it ran critically low on de-icer fluid. Half of the airline's flights out of the Cincinnati airport on Friday also were canceled.</p><p>"There was a cumulative effect with the canceled flights and trying to get crew assigned that caused the (computer) system to be overwhelmed," Miller said. "It just stopped operating."</p><p>Cincinnati is Delta's second-largest hub, after Atlanta, and Delta and Comair flights make up 92 percent of the airport's business, airport spokesman Ted Bushelman said.</p><p>At the terminal that Delta and Comair share, throngs of passengers milled about Saturday in a baggage area already crowded with hundreds of pieces of unclaimed luggage from other delayed and canceled flights.</p><p>"It's the worst Christmas I've ever experienced," said Guy Lobuono, of Colerain Township near Cincinnati. "We've missed Christmas Eve. We've missed Christmas."</p><p>Lobuono and his wife, Claire, had been trying since Thursday to get to Wisconsin to see their daughter, son-in-law and three grandchildren. They spent Christmas Eve at an airport hotel eating potato chips from a vending machine because no restaurants were open.</p><p>"I know it's bad weather, but I just think it's disorganized," Guy Lobuono told The Cincinnati Enquirer as his wife stood in line to check on other options.</p><p>US Airways, American, United, Continental, Northwest and some smaller airlines also fly out of the Cincinnati airport.</p><p>Miller said Comair was contacting travelers and trying to put them on Delta flights. Crews were working to see how many flights Comair could handle Sunday, but nothing was definite.</p><p>"It's been a very busy holiday season and we deeply regret this problem for our customers," Miller said.</p><p>Cynthia Mayer was trying to return home to Hilton Head, S.C., on a Comair flight to visit other relatives after spending a week with her daughter in West Chester, a suburb of Cincinnati.</p><p>"They took my luggage," Mayer said. "They told me my flight was fine."</p><p>She later learned that her flight was canceled. Airline workers said they did not know where her luggage was and could not get it for her.</p><p>"They offered me a toothbrush _ a kit with a toothpaste and a toothbrush," Mayer said, chuckling.</p><p>The earliest flight home would be late Monday night, Mayer said. But her daughter didn't mind the extended visit, calling it a "Christmas bonus."</p><p>"I get my mother for another two days," Lynn Bunn said.</p><p>Mark Kasprovic, 43, of Columbus, said he wants Comair to replace the $120 child's car seat that was missing from his luggage when his flight from Savannah, Ga., landed in Cincinnati before the computer crash.</p><p>"It's up to them to have a week to see if it comes back," he said.</p><p>Comair is a regional airline, operating more than 1,160 flights a day to nearly 120 cities in the U.S., Canada and the Bahamas, according to a fact sheet on the company's Web site.</p><p>___</p><p>On the Net:</p><p>Comair: www.comair.com</p><p>Delta: www.delta.com</p><p>Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport: www.cvgairport.com</p>

http://accesswdun.com/article/2004/12/154659