Transformer failure impacts Calgary airport operations, travel – Calgary

It was not a day to ‘roll out’ at the Calgary International Airport on Tuesday.

One-third of the international terminal had power knocked out after a transformer failed — not an optimal scenario for travellers primed to jet away.

The airport authority is back to normal operations as airlines try to clear the backlog of travellers, but YYC is investigating what went wrong with the power.

The problems started just before 1 p.m. Tuesday afternoon, when unusual noises were heard coming from an electrical room.

“Upon investigation, we went down to that room about three minutes after the initial report and there was smoke. What had occurred is one of the transformers had failed,” Chris Miles, VP of operations and infrastructure, said Wednesday.

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Power outage caused delays for summer travellers at YYC

Miles said primary power was back up in the terminal about an hour and 20 minutes after going out, with secondary power – going to ancillary offices, retail and other services – coming back at around 4 p.m.

The power outage also knocked out one-third of the 17-kilometre-long baggage system that runs under the main floor of the terminal.

“When you lose a third of that, you actually lose the baggage system,” Miles said.

The building’s electricity problems also hit the IT department and its cooling systems. Miles said the team immediately started switching over to redundant systems but ran into some issues when the “handshake between the two systems failed for some reason.”

“We are still investigating that.”

It took YYC more than eight hours to restore all of its systems after the transformer failure.

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Air Canada passengers frustrated by delays at Calgary International Airport

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“In this particular scenario, I’d like to offer my apology to everyone that was in our turmoil yesterday,” the vice-president said. “We did have a failure across a couple of fronts.

“We’re doing the investigation. We’re going to be working with our partners to ensure that we’ve got a fulsome after-action report (including) debriefs, corrective actions.”

The airport said that in May, an average of 50,000 people travelled through the airport per day and delays out of Calgary can cascade to affect domestic and international air travel.

A WestJet spokesperson said their operations were impacted.

“These things do impact WestJet’s ability to operate our scheduled flying, and they do highlight the importance of shared accountability when it comes to delivering across the entire travel journey and working with our partners,” April Crane said Wednesday.

Canada Border Services Agency officers stepped in to help delayed and stranded travellers navigate the disruptions.

“I was in there myself yesterday and had an opportunity to speak to many people who were waiting for everything to be restored during that outage – the majority of whom were visitors to Canada,” CBSA port director Lisa White said. “I had an opportunity to play a little bit of tour guide as well and give them some travel tips on their way out as (the power disruption) paused their journey.”

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