Power outage causes flight delays at Buffalo airport

Instead, they spent the day waiting in line for hours on end, speaking with airline representatives and chatting in the airport lobby after their 6:30 a.m. flight was delayed by more than 11 hours.

They hoped to make it to their destination before midnight, when the Wichita airport’s rental car desk closes.

“It’s an inconvenience, but you’re kind of powerless as to what you can do,” Bill Healy said.

Numerous flights were delayed or canceled after a “transformer issue” caused the Buffalo Niagara International Airport to lose power for about six hours early Wednesday morning, a Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority spokesperson said in an email.

Traffic lights on Genesee Street were out and the “packed” airport lobby was lit with backup lights when the Healys arrived around 5 a.m. Without self-service check-in kiosks, airport staff had to help long lines of flyers manually.

“They’re stressed out,” Audrey Healy said of the airport employees. “One of them said, ‘This is my last day today.’ ”

Passengers waiting in long lines applauded when the airport’s main lights finally came back on, but that didn’t bring any delayed flights back up to speed.

“Once the power was back on, it didn’t really help anything,” Bill Healy said, laughing.

The airport had been running on backup power for several hours. Power was restored to the airport around 9 a.m.

Power has been restored to all but one customer in Cheektowaga as of 3 p.m., according to New York State Electric and Gas.