One of the heaviest travel weeks of the year began with the cancellation of hundreds of flights on Sunday at the world’s busiest airport in Atlanta, where a power outage left passengers stranded in darkened terminals or in aircraft idling on tarmacs.
The outage paralyzed operations at the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport through Sunday evening. Even as power was being restored, the incident continued to wreck havoc on holiday travel plans for thousands of people affected by airline cancellations extending into Monday.
All passengers had safely disembarked aircraft by approximately 10 p.m. EST, or nine hours after the outage began, Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed said on Twitter.
The FAA said air traffic control remained fully staffed, with the airport open and accepting general aviation and cargo operations. It expected commercial traffic to resume on Monday.
Reed told reporters earlier in the evening that the airport was expected…