Why two power outages struck the Philadelphia Airport this weekend

Terminal D at PHL continues to run on a generator and expects to return to commercial power by Tuesday.

Drivers sit in traffic as they entered Philadelphia International Airport from Industrial Highway on Sunday evening. As many travelers returned home from Thanksgiving, the airport's Terminal D experienced its second power outage of the weekend from 2:30 to 5:30 p.m. Sunday, delaying about two dozen flights.Read moreElizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer

Published Dec. 2, 2024, 1:56 p.m. ET

Philadelphia International Airport on Monday was still relying on a generator to power Terminal D after outages delayed more than 90 flights during one of the year’s busiest travel weekends.

An investigation determined that a “fault in the cabling system” caused the initial 16½-hour outage that delayed 70 flights Friday and Saturday, PHL spokesperson Heather Redfern said Monday.

A large generator was brought in Saturday afternoon to restore power. But a day later, it stopped working, causing a second outage on what was projected to be the airport’s busiest day of the long Thanksgiving weekend.

For about three hours Sunday afternoon, two dozen flights were delayed and Terminal D’s kiosks and concessions again went dark. Another generator was brought in, bringing power back around 5:30 p.m.

There had been no outages since then, Redfern said Monday afternoon. While repairs were being made, Terminal D was continuing to be powered by a generator, she said, but airport officials expect to return to commercial power by Tuesday.

Delta, United, Alaska Air, and Air Canada are among the airlines that depart from and arrive in Terminal D.

One Portland, Ore., couple on an arriving Delta flight Saturday afternoon told The Inquirer they sat on the tarmac in Philadelphia for two hours, waiting for power to be restored to the jetway that connects the plane to the terminal. Passengers were getting antsy as they waited.

“It was reaching that point of ‘Can we do anything to get us off this plane?’” said 39-year-old Kyle Hanson. He was traveling with his wife, Christine Hanson, a project manager in town for business this week.

Aside from the power issues at the airport, travel was relatively smooth Sunday as hundreds of thousands of local residents made their way home from their Thanksgiving celebrations.

On Monday morning, Amtrak service between Philadelphia and New York was temporarily suspended due to overhead wire issues. Service was partially restored just before noon, but the company told passengers to expect delays of up to an hour if traveling between Philadelphia and Newark, N.J.